T-Rex Arms race

[Andrew Simpson <deathspresso@yahoo.com>]

I think it's a resonable concept that they used those
arms when the were young. If you look at a rendering
of a full grown T-Rex and try to imagine full usable
arms they suddenly seem awkward. It's also another few
hundred pounds of bulk to support that may have little
real useful application if the mouth can do what it
needs to do. Snakes and sharks (and all fish) get by
without arms. 

They might have been a hinderence once in adulthood as
They might have been easy to rip off and thus cause
horrid wounds. Smaller limbed adults might have been
more successful and so the evolutionary change.

Mate grabbers if anything. 

Andrew

--- Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au> wrote:

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



                
____________________________________________________ 
Yahoo! Sports 
Rekindle the Rivalries. Sign up for Fantasy Football 
http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com