Oppinions and questions

[Renato Santos <dracontes@hotmail.com>]

Dear list,

Well after the Falcarius find (and even before that) I came to think that 
though therizinosaurs specially basal ones might have used the big claws to 
bring branches to mouth's reach it seems too farfetched to be a very common 
behaviour for one simple reason: the necks reach further than the claws. In 
the "Chased by Dinosaurs" WWD special on the Gobi Desert I found it 
particularly ridiculous that a Therizinosaurus individual was "clipping" a 
bush lower than the creature itself was, when it could have as easily 
hunkered down much like a goose and foraged on the branches now at a much 
more convenient height. Not mentioning that the claws could do their 
propurted job better in this position.
I'm with another member of this list in the assertion that the claws were 
used mainly for defense. If they were use for aggression in the forebearers 
of "scythe-lizards", defense can coopt the same structures rather easily.
In the same manner if the hands were also display devices in these ancestors 
I would think that therizinosaurs would flash the claws to resolve social 
disputes. Perhaps one can even paralell Therizinosaurus big claws to the 
tusks of proboscideans though one should take care in making such 
correspondances.

Now for a few questions:

Suscited by a conversation I had at Dinoforum.net I'd like to ask what 
became of the ankylosaur and hypsilophodont found at James Ross Island in 
the 80's. Were they studied or are they still resting in some museum shelf?

A strange mention of a parallelism at the same forum, between Falcarius and 
Deinocheirus, makes me wonder: Is there any way the later can be a giant 
form of basal therizinosauroid? Or is it still largely considered as an 
indeterminate ornithomimosaur?

Hope to have raised some eyebrows, and not to have frowned some at the same 
time,
Renato Santos

My online art gallery:
http://dracontes.deviantart.com
Comments and critics are appreciated.

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