RE: T rex bites your bum

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

> From: John Hunt [mailto:john.bass@ntlworld.com]
>
> Sorry Thomas!
> 
> Perhaps I should have qualified it like:  I have noticed that the long
> metatarsals of tyrannosaurs are often overlooked in arguments concerning
> limb proportions on popular TV shows by proponents of the view that T. rex
> was a strolling obligate scavenger.
> 
> Is that better?

Yes, that's a lot better.

And has an easy answer: Horner's more popular than me when it comes to TV 
producers... :-C

                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/
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. [mailto:tholtz@geol.umd.edu] 
> Sent: 24 May 2005 14:05
> To: john.bass@ntlworld.com; DragonsClaw@gmx.net; 'DML'
> Subject: RE: T rex bites your bum
> 
> > From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> > John Hunt
> >
> > There has been much speculation regarding the speed or otherwise of
> > tyrannosaurs but I have not noticed much research into the locomotive
> > abilities of the potential prey.  What were the relative proportions of
> > femur, tibia and metatarsals of hadrosaurs (I have noticed that the long
> > metatarsals of tyrannosaurs are often overlooked in arguments concerning
> > limb proportions)?
> 
> [Sputtering out his morning coffee...] OVERLOOKED!?!?!?!?!?
> 
> Sorry, sorry, no reason I should take this personally... (arctometatarsus
> function, big morphometrics of theropod limb paper in JVP
> back in the 1990s, papers on theropod predation in the 2000s making just
> this point, talks at DinoFest on just this point, chapter
> in Dinosauria II, freaking KID'S BOOK on the subject, grumble, grumble,
> grumble, grumble, grumble...).
> 
> (Yeah, and Eric Snively and Greg Paul need some credit here, too...)
> 
> Okay, for the hadrosaurid limb proportions: tibiae scale to femora slightly
> under tyrannosaurids, metatarsals WAY under
> tyrannosaurids.
> 
> Further paper on precisely this topic should be coming your way after the T.
> rex symposium this summer.
> 
>               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/
> http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
> Phone:        301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
> Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661     Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796
>