RE: T-rex Finger Count?

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Jordan Mallon
>
> On 6/6/05, Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. <tholtz@geol.umd.edu> wrote:
>
> >While it is true newly discovered specimens (e.g., Peck's rex)
> finally preserve >metacarpal III (already known from other
> tyrannosaurids, and inferred by >Carpenter and Smith in their
> description of the T. rex forelimb)
>
> I don't have my copy of MVL on hand, so I'll have to ask: Before we
> knew of mc III in T. rex, was there any reason to think that this
> element was indeed there (e.g. impression left on mt II)?  I ask
> because it seems to me a good case could have been made that it wasn't
> (not that it matters anymore).
> Just letting my mind wander...
>
In the aforementioned Carpenter and Smith paper (in the Currie Festschrift), 
they pointed out that there is a notch on the base of
McII suggesting that McIII would have been present.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
        Mailing Address:
                Building 237, Room 1117
                College Park, MD  20742

http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
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