Re: Deinocheirus (was Sauropodz r kewl WAS: silly conversation on 2012 US presidential race)

[Robert Schenck <schenck.rob@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 8:45 AM, Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. <tholtz@umd.edu> wrote:
>> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu]
>> On Behalf Of Robert Schenck
>>e know how feathered their hands were; if they have
>> feathers coming off the fingers that might've made using them
>> as defense less likely. But you have to think, any animal is
>> going to do whatever it can to defend itself.
>
> Two things:
>
> No, we do not know how feathered the hands of therizinosaurs or 
> ornithomimosaurs were, although we have oviraptorosaurs.
>
> But why would being feathered make them less used in defense? Even volant 
> birds can be pretty violent in clubbing each other or
> predators with wings, and those are animals that use those forelimbs to fly 
> (unlike the dinosaurs in question here).

Ah yes, as a reader of Naish's Tetrapod Zoology I should've remembered
all the different birds that have spurs and clubs on their limbs. Not
to mention that Hoatzin chicks can grasp branchs with their clawed and
feathered hands.


-- 
Robert J. Schenck
Kingsborough Community College
Physical Sciences Department
Follow Me on Twitter: @Schenck