How Did Giant Theropods Break Their Fall?

[Sim Koning <simkoning@msn.com>]

 Hello everyone, I'm new here and this is may very first post.

 The subject that currently interests me the most is the debate on whether 
or not short limbed, large theropods could survive a fall. The reason this 
interests me is due in part to the fact that I'm a martial arts instructor 
and breaking a fall is a big part of what I do. I know Farlow has stated in 
his work that a tyrannosaurus would likely die even if it fell at a stand 
still. I'm no physicist, but the idea that giant theropods would die so 
easily from a fall doesn't make sense when I consider their life style.

 I know from actual fighting that most fights that involve any kind of 
grappling go to the ground, even when both fighters are trying to avoid 
doing so. When two people grapple, one usually loses his balance and falls, 
often pulling his opponent with him. Now unless ALL giant predators were 
scavengers, one would expect that these animals would fall quite often in 
the process of grappling with their prey. I say grappling because all 
theropods seemed to kill their prey by seizing them with their jaws and/or 
their claws. Giganotosaurus was larger than T-rex and tackled even larger 
prey. Giganotosaurus, even with its slashing teeth, would had to of locked 
its jaws into the flesh of its prey at least momentarily before tearing off 
a large chunk of skin and muscle. A sudden turn, or even a forceful bump 
from a 50-100 ton titanosaur could have knocked the giant beast to the 
ground. Since this is how giant theropods got their food, one would expect 
that they could survive a fall.

So, how did giant theropods prevent injury while falling? My guess is that 
they didn't, every fall probably resulted in broken or fractured ribs, but I 
don't think it would always be life threatening. They find broken and healed 
bones on theropods all the time, is it possible that many of these were from 
falls? My question is how did they prevent serious injury or death? You 
might be surprised to know that extending your arms to break a fall is one 
of the easiest ways to break your arm and least effective way to break a 
fall. While falling backwards or to the side, martial artists do not extend 
their arms at all, instead they relax their bodies and spread the impact 
over a wide area, often by slapping the arms against the ground at the same 
time the body makes contact.  The only time the arms are used to break a 
fall is while falling forward. While doing a front breakfall, the arms are 
bent, not extended and the arms are used like a springboard. In every 
breakfall that martial artists use, the head is always elevated away from 
the ground during impact, this is to prevent head injuries.

The following are my guesses as to how giant theropods may have responded to 
falls from different angles.

Side Fall-  This would probably be the most damaging fall for a theropod 
since some of these animals would in effect be falling 10 feet to the 
ground. To minimize injury, I imagine they would spread the impact over as 
wide an area as possible. Most of the shock would probably be taken by the 
thigh and body, followed by the tail. The neck would likely be bent away 
from the ground, with the head elevated as much as possible to prevent it 
from slamming into the earth. The animal would probably instinctively expel 
the air from its lungs at the moment of impact to reduce the shock and avoid 
internal injury.

Front Fall- I doubt this type of fall would cause any major injury since the 
animal is already in a horizontal position, with the pubic boot at most 
being 5 to 6 feet away from the ground. I imagine that if a T-rex stumbled 
while walking it would bend its knees while trying to regain balance, which 
would lower the pubic foot, knees and stomach even closer to the ground 
before impact, possibly only falling a few feet in the process. I think 
people forget that a t-rex is already horizontal and would not fall like a 
top heavy, upright human. I've always imagined that tyrannosaurs would land 
on their pubic foot and knees when falling, once again with the neck and 
head elevated away from the ground.

Falling While Running- If a giant theropod fell while running, I imagine it 
would instinctively try to lower its body as much as possible to the ground 
before making impact. The body would probably be kept level, so that when it 
hit, it would effectively skid across the ground. Contrary to what people 
think, if you fall right while running, you are less likely to be hurt than 
if you jumped straight into the air and landed on your back. The problem is 
that if there is a lot of friction, a tyrannosaur would likely roll head 
over tail, which I imagine could result in a broken neck. Humans, cats, dogs 
and many other animals avoid this by curling the neck and back to roll 
across the ground. Rolling can make a fall, even at high speeds, completely 
painless. Now I have no idea whether a T-rex or Giganotosaurus was flexible 
enough to curl its neck and back in such a fashion, maybe one of you know?

those are my thoughts. If you think my ideas are rather silly feel free to 
let me know =)

Sim Koning

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