RE: tyrannosaurid feeding ecology

["Jordan Mallon" <j_mallon@hotmail.com>]

> From: Tim Donovan <starman2017@yahoo.com>

> The 1988 tail bite paper mentioned a pit in one of the mangled caudals, 
> interpreted by the author as a toothmark.

Did you mean to say the 1998 Gaia paper?  If not, which 1988 paper are you 
referring to?
The thing about the traumatized edmontosaur 15th caudal vertebra is that it 
isn't pitted, as you mentioned, so much as the entire upper third is 
entirely missing!  What sort of bone disease could do that?  (I'm completely 
ignorant of the subject.)  Combine that with the fact that the surrounding 
vertebrae show trauma in sections where one would expect the circumference 
of a tyrannosaur bite to follow, and I think Dr. Carpenter makes a pretty 
strong case for tyrannosaurid predation.
Hasta la vista.

Jordan Mallon

Undergraduate Student, Carleton University
Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoecology

Website: http://www.geocities.com/paleoportfolio/
AIM: jslice mallon

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