Re: New dinosaur and nature programs from Impossible Pictures (joke)

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

Tim Williams wrote:
> Sure, a skinny Hollywood
> actress may have slipped through his fingers (and probably were not worth
> eating), but the forelimbs of _T. rex_ were probably useful for embracing
> *something*.  Maybe they served as grappling devices, to help secure large
> prey that was held by the powerful jaws.  Like hadrosaurs, or even
> titanosaurs (in the American SW, anyway).

I have trouble with this use for the forelimbs. I don't care how strong
the forelimb muscles of a 'rex were - surely trying to hold back a
struggling multi-tonne hadrosaur (or worse, a sauropod!) would rip an
arm from its socket?

I prefer the 'mating claspers' idea myself (as in marine turtle
'thumbs'). Or perhaps the forelimbs were of more use as juveniles (when
they were relatively larger), and the 'rexes outgrew them.

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist         http://www.geocities.com/dannsdinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia        http://heretichides.soffiles.com
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