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

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu>]

> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] 
> On Behalf Of Robert Schenck
>
> > 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.

Not only that: even spurless ones clobber each other with wings. Birds are a 
lot less fragile than people seem to think.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216                        
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661               

Faculty Director, Science & Global Change Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc
Fax: 301-314-9843

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Department of Geology
                        Building 237, Room 1117
                        University of Maryland
                        College Park, MD 20742 USA