Re: Ceratopsian Shield Holes

[Steve Jackson <sj@io.com>]

On Thu, 11 May 1995, Bill Adlam wrote:

> On Thu, 11 May 1995, Stan Friesen wrote:
> 
> > In life the holes would have been "filled" by living tissue.
> > This is why it is pretty much out of the question that these
> > "shields" were used for protection - they would have been as
> > susceptible to damage as the stuff they were supposedly protecting.

That depends on how they were used, and against what kind of attack.
Consider another kind of shield - that carried by a medieval fighter.
Against an attacking archer, yes, the protection is provided by the center
of the shield, and a "soft" shield would be worthless. Likewise, against
some (though not all) thrusting attacks. But against a sword swing, or the
slow thrust from a heavy weapon, the medieval fighter blocked with the
edge of the shield, which, in the ceratopsian, was solid bone. Could
Triceratops have tossed his head and used the edge of his frill to knock
away reaching jaws? I may be reaching too far here; the same motion would
be much more effective if it sent those horns into the attacker. The only
thing I'm sure of is that against some attacks, the center of the shield
is unimportant if the edge is solid. 

** Steve Jackson - yes, of SJ Games - yes, we won the USSS case - fnord **
 Learn Web or die - http://www.io.com/sjgames/ - dinosaurs, Lego, Kahlua!