Re: tiny-armed theropods

[Don Ohmes <d_ohmes@yahoo.com>]

On 10/7/2011 12:38 PM, Jason Brougham wrote:

>>> To figure out any sort of principles of arm reduction in theropods 
we'd have to do a survey of the distribution of this feature and look 
for correlates. Others have suggested and I agree that there would be 
several and perhaps innumerable different correlates and settings with 
and in which it happens. <<<

Assuming Person's results (link below) are correct, it would seem that 
carnosaurs (and tyrannosaurs) were definitely hyper-accelerative 
relative to size --

<http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-10-prehistoric-speedway-super-sized-muscle-twin-horned.html>

The long-armed, long-clawed therizinosaurs were obviously 
hypo-accelerative...

Are there counter-example taxa known that destroy the potentially 
parsimonious inverse correlation between accelerative capability and 
arm-length in theropods?

I note that the functional argument implies that the differential in 
relative arm length when plotted against speed would be less in smaller 
animals than in larger.