Re: hadrosaurid speed again (was: Maastrichtian extinction)

["Tim Donovan" <msdonovan66@hotmail.com>]

> On Friday, November 15, 2002, at 10:34  PM, Tim Donovan wrote:
>
> > [...] and faster speed- conferred by longer legs- to catch it. IMHO, it 
> > isn't at all surprising that taxa which seem least able to resist attack 
> > or flee-the nearly hornless centrosaurines and relatively short legged, 
> > bulky lambeosaurs, respectively-were eclipsed by Tyrannosaurus. It 
> > represented a major leap in predatory capability, and not all of the 
> > contemporaries of Albertosaurus could adapt.
>
> I think Rob Gay's post on hadrosaurid limb proportions falsified your 
> hypothesis that lambeosaurines were slower than hadrosaurines.

  No, it didn't take into account the larger size and longer legs of 
Anatotitan, or its more gracile build.



and you never answered Rob's post.

 Somebody else did.

> Similarly, you have not provided any data to support the conclusion that 
> longer legged animals are faster

   Not just longer legs, but other evidence for cursoriality. Elephants 
have long legs but are not cursorial. Hadrosaurs had hooves and evolved to 
flee. The last of them had the longest legs and the most gracile build. 
Also, it wasn't just a matter of speed but endurance.



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