Re: Quo vadis, T. rex?

["Nicholas J. Pharris" <pharrinj@PLU.edu>]

On Fri, 2 Feb 1996 Dinogeorge@aol.com wrote:

> Not quite that easy, I'm afraid. There's still a distal ischial expansion in
> the ornithomimid pelvis that needs to be taken care of, and of course the
> pubic boot has to enlarge also. Also, the ornithomimid ischium has a
> differently shaped and positioned obturator process from that of
> tyrannosaurids and is more downcurved. It's easier to get to the
> tyrannosaurid pelvis from _Compsognathus_ than from an ornithomimid.
> 

The pelvis of _Dromiceiomimus_ shows a nice distally-placed obturator 
process, and a few tyrannosaurid ischia do show a bit of a hook at the 
distal end, like that in an ornithomime.

Actually, I was being (partly) flippant.  Granted, the ischium of 
_Compsognathus_ looks quite like that of a tyrannosaur.  It is also 
rather like that of an ornithomimosaur and, with a bit of pushing and 
pulling, could me made to look like that of a troodont.  The 
earliest-known troodont, _Sinornithoides youngi_, has a dorsally 
curved iliac margin like that of Compy, BTW.  Again, _Compsognathus_ would 
not make a bad basal arctomet--with the same caveats as stated earlier.  

I'm not sure the traditional restoration of Compy's foot isn't invested 
with a fair amount of imagination.  How's the foot on the French specimen?

Bye for now!

Nick Pharris
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma, WA 98447
(206)535-8204
PharriNJ@PLU.edu

"If you can't convince them, confuse them." -- Harry S. Truman