Re: Penguins And Rexes

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

On Thu, 11 Aug 2005, frank bliss wrote:
> If they could, the snout would be prone to abrasion lifting so much 
> weight.  An injured snout would likely be the site of potentially 

Unless, possibly, it had a lot of callous there, or perhaps ossicles. I
was thinking more along the lines of bone growth to meet the stress, but
tissue issues would figure in as well.

> reoccurring fungal infections just like modern reptiles that injure 
> their snout against the glass in a cage.  Scarring on the soft tissue 
> is a given but whether this would leave something for the 
> paleopathologist to see on fossils is a good question that I can't 
> answer.  Would the counterbalance of a swinging large heavy tail along 
> with strong legs (with pretty good traction) be enough to get up?  Just 
> watch a cat swing it's tail around and the net effect.  A penquin 

Kitty tails haven't much mass, plus their front legs aren't 
correspondingly
short.

> doesn't have those advantages. (No tail, no traction, no long, very 
> strong legs.)  It all may be speculation without tell tail signs of 

Ah, the insight of watching two hours of penguins on a big screen...they
do have tails and they often used them for bracing when holding eggs
or young - I was very surprised by that detail. (not that I have an
interest in penguins, mind you, but like most folks and seen lots
of pictures and short clips over the years and it's one of those things I 
never noticed)

> repeated snout infection (which could be from feeding or fighting 
> injuries too) or a very fortuitous trace fossil set.  Interesting 
> concept though. Perhaps they used what ever works much like us in a bad 
> balance situation.

Anyone with a rex simulation handy?
 
> On Aug 11, 2005, at 9:49 PM, Richard W. Travsky wrote:
> 
> >
> > Saw "March of the Penguins" earlier this week, and noted something I
> > hadn't before about penguins (not unexpected when they're on screen
> > in front of you for almost 2 hours).
> >
> > They had two ways of getting up when traveling on their bellies.
> >
> > One, obviously, pushing up on their flipper arms.
> >
> > The other was pushing up with their beaks, with no arm usage.
> >
> > So, question - In the past there's been mention in the list of how
> > rexes got up, what with those tiny arms and all. I don't recall if
> > anyone proposed pushing up with their jaws. That would seem like
> > a lot of weight to raise. Do their jaws look sturdy enough to
> > do that? Do their jaws show signs of being used in this fashion?
> >
>