Re: Allosaurus head and neck function (free pdf)

[Jura <pristichampsus@yahoo.com>]

WitmerLab has a whole bunch of bonus info to go with the paper here:

http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/dbms-witmer/allosaurus_mechanics.htm

 Jason



----- Original Message -----
> From: Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com>
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Cc: 
> Sent: Tuesday, 21 May 2013 2:46 PM
> Subject: Allosaurus head and neck function (free pdf)
> 
> From: Ben Creisler
> bcreisler@gmail.com
> 
> New in open-access Palaeontologia Electronica:
> 
> 
> Eric Snively, John R. Cotton, Ryan Ridgely, and Lawrence M. Witmer (2013)
> Multibody dynamics model of head and neck function in Allosaurus
> (Dinosauria, Theropoda).
> Palaeontologia Electronica Vol. 16, Issue 2; 11A 29p
> palaeo-electronica.org/content/2013/389-allosaurus-feeding
> http://palaeo-electronica.org/content/2013/389-allosaurus-feeding
> 
> 
> We present a multibody dynamics model of the feeding apparatus of the
> large Jurassic theropod dinosaur Allosaurus that enables testing of
> hypotheses about the animal's feeding behavior and about how
> anatomical parameters influence function. We created CT- and
> anatomical-inference-based models of bone, soft tissue, and air spaces
> which we use to provide inertial properties for musculoskeletal
> dynamics. Estimates of bone density have a surprisingly large effect
> on head inertial properties, and trachea diameter strongly affects
> moments of inertia of neck segments for dorsoventral movements. The
> ventrally-placed insertion of m. longissimus capitis superficialis in
> Allosaurus imparted over twice the ventroflexive accelerations of a
> proxy control insertion lateral to the occipital condyle, the latter
> being its position in nearly all other theropods. A feeding style that
> involved defleshing a carcass by avian-raptor-like retraction of the
> head in Allosaurus is more probable than is lateroflexive
> shake-feeding, such as that seen in crocodilians and inferred for
> tyrannosaurids.
>