Re: Triceratops Frills

["Cunningham, Betty" <bcunning@nssi.com>]

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.

How much weight would a T rex have to be able to lift, to raise a ceratopian 
(Hah! no 's') or hadrosaur by it's neck off of the ground?  I think, rather 
tahn shaking it's prey, it merely crushed the whole neck structure with the 
bite capability of those massive jaws (like modern lions do to zebras), and 
let the darn thing suffocate.  Perhaps the T rex pinned the animal in place 
with the shear massiveness of it's large head (or head and foot), so it 
didn't have to dodge the horns of a ceratopian during it's last struggles for 
breath, but stayed safely behind the neck frill.
     
>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, Tom?  Tom?  Do you want to say something? ;]  (Tom has one or two papers 
out on this very topic)
     
>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.

perhaps rabbits have more flexible spines than the dinosaurs Uncle Bob was 
referrring to, to allow the overtaking?  Like in cheetahs.

-Betty