RE: comment-therizinosaurs

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

On Mon, Oct 10th, 2011 at 1:07 PM, Jaime Headden <qi_leong@hotmail.com> wrote:

> There was the idea that they were useful for digging (not usueful at all, 
> being thin) or for
> "hooking" vegetation (which would ask for strong curvature), but even so, it 
> makes odd sense to
> evolve great size, apparent herbivore traits, and then large thin unguals not 
> just on the hands
> but the feet also.

The claws of therizinosaurs seem to compare quite well in general form to those 
of giant anteaters. 
The anteater claws are slightly more recurved, but perhaps being quadrupeds 
they are using their 
claws at a different angle than that which therizinosaurs used theirs. 

Therizinosaur claws may have been too thin to make effective digging spades 
(ruling out a 
burrowing lifestyle - if their size hadn't already done so), so perhaps they 
were better suited for 
more of a tearing function. Such claws may have been equally useful against 
insect nests, rotten 
logs, cycads (full of starchy pith), carcasses, or theropod faces.

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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