> _Gigantoraptor_ reminds me of a giant moa (dinornithid). The
resemblance
> is
> probably largely superficial, and I'm really going out on a limb here
(so
> to
> speak)... but I can't help wonder if maybe those big clawed hands were
> used
> not for attack but for defense. Those raking hands would prompt a
roving
> tyrannosaur to think twice about coming too close. Also, winged arms
and
> hands might have made the animal (or at least the forelimb) appear even
> bigger and scarier than what it was. Just idle speculation.
>
[/snip]
Among big flightless Caenozoic birds, dinornithids are perhaps the _least_
like _Gigantoraptor_ in several respects:
The head is extremely small, the jaws shallow and beak hookless, implying
an
extreme of the ratite 'pluck and swallow' feeding style rather than the
cutting and crushing ability attested by the deep, robust and apparently
hooked (parrot-like) jaws and beak of the oviraptorid.
Dinornithids have very short tarsometatarsi and long tibiotarsi relative to
most other birds and bipedal dinosaurs: I'm not sure what functional
explanation there may be for these odd proportions, but cursoriality does
not seem to be a candidate.
And moas totally lacked forelimbs, defensive or otherwise.