Re: Tyrannosaur vision

[Phil Bigelow <bigelowp@juno.com>]

A neat (and probably relatively accurate) experiment.

But this all assumes that T. rex did not have any fleshy adornments on
its snout.  Keep in mind that the nasals on T. rex are quite rugose. 
Bone rugosity probably does not evolve without a function.

Did Stevens also run his laser/Plexiglass test on skulls of extant
diapsids?  To show that his light sabre technique correlates well with
known field of views of living animals?

<pb>
--


On Mon, 22 Aug 2005 10:21:44 -0600 (MDT) "Richard W. Travsky"
<rtravsky@uwyo.edu> writes:
> On Mon, 22 Aug 2005, Mickey Rowe wrote:
> > [...]
> > As Tom Holtz implied, the "evidence" is more like a
> > reconstruction of possible lines of sight.  To fill in
> > the gaps: Stevens had a restoration of the skull of a
> > Tyrannosaurus.  He placed a clear plexiglass screen in
> > front of it.  He took a laser and shined it through
> > the plexiglass toward the eye of the restored
> > tyrannosaur head.  He marked the location where the
> > laser light passed through the plexiglass to the eye. 
> > He repeated this from a variety of angles from which
> > the laser light just barely cleared the snout on its
> > way to the eye.  Connecting the marks on the
> > plexiglass and knowing how far away the plexiglass was
> > from the eye provided an estimate of the field of view
> > for that eye.
> 
> I was thinking of this from the other perspective - from the eye
> socket itself...
> 
> > [...]
>