Re: How would Tyrannosaurus approach a Triceratops?

[Aidan Karley <aidan_karley@yahoo.co.uk>]

--- "Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com> wrote:
[SNIP]
> The reason that *T. rex* is said to have such binocular
> vision is that the jugal, which is normally straight in 
> ventral view in theropods, has a particular kink in it 
> in *T. rex* (and to a lesser degree in *T. baatar* and
> *D. torosus*), which causes the orbit to face roughly 
> 45 degrees to the midline. 
    I see the reasoning, but I've just been doing some poking around
with my specs and eyeballs to work out that the only experimental
animal I have available (H.sap) has about a 90deg field of view per
eyeball, so with an optic axis oriented at 45deg to the body/ skull
axis, the actual fields of view of each eye would barely overlap.
Obviously subject to assumptions about the angular width of field of
view in T.rex, and the amount of yaw of their eyes in their sockets.
would the scleral plates constrain this? they're anchors for eye-moving
muscles, aren't they?

> he simply bends the argument towards the huge size
> of the
> olfactory bulbs and wants you to forget the eyes of the turkey
> vulture are the
> key to SPOTTING dead prey, even if the nose tells you there's
> something there.
> *T. rex* likely used both senses, and ignoring one for the other is
> to build a
> strawman.
> 
    There's a MrMagoo cartoon plot in there somewhere. <G>



-- 
Aidan Karley,
Aberdeen,
Scotland


                
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