Triceratops Frills

[(veni, vidi, concreti) <martin@hpentccl.grenoble.hp.com>]

Hi, I've been lurking around for a couple of weeks, and the "horn" thread is 
intriguing....

> include locking horns and twisting from side to side.  As to what
> Triceratops did, who knows, but to get an idea of its capabilities I think
> you would have to look beyond the shape of the horn to the whole head and
> neck structure, to determine how the horns could have been presented and
> where the greatest stress-bearing areas were.  Has anyone done this?
> 
Has anyone done any studies showing a correlation between Triceratops (and 
related sp.) frill size and the jaw gape of the (presumed) predators? Is there 
an increase in size over time to cope with an increase in gape?

Sorry if this is a silly question, I'm an interested layman.

Also, I've noticed (in films) that predators of big animals tend to try and 
grab the neck of the prey, either to break it or suffocate it. They try to 
stay well out of the way of kicking feet. Could we hypothesise that T. rex is 
perhaps designed for "head waggling" (I can't think of another term but it's 
what dogs do for example) with the prey's neck, to try and dispatch it 
quickly? It's got the weight to do it I would think.

Also, again, could the large "kicking" claw on (I can't remember the name but 
it begins with a D) be used for climbing on the backs of larger prey to get at 
the neck, rather than for disembowelling?  Could one imagine predators which 
specialise in one type of prey, using one successfull killing technique (until 
the prey developed a counter-measure), rather than preying on all species?

Oh, and finally, for the moment, I don't understand the comment by Bakker on 
"the hind legs overtaking the front legs". Hares and rabbits have vastly 
different leg lengths, yet they seem to be reasonably successful at running 
about.

martin