Re: The uses of sickle claws

[Jonathon Woolf <jwoolf@erinet.com>]

Chris Campbell wrote:
> 
> Michael wrote:
> 
> > Did dromeosaurs weigh anything like Smilodon fatalis?
> 
> Depends on the species; _S. populator_ seems to have gotten quite a bit
> bigger than _S. fatalis_, and _S fatalis_ was already pretty big.  I
> imagine the weight ranges of dromies and _Smilodon_ would overlap to a
> fair extent.
> 

_S. fatalis_ seems to have been the size of a modern lioness, but more
heavily built with unusually thick bones, putting its mass in the
150-200kg range.  _S. populator_ was a third again the size of
_fatalis_, meaning it could go as high as 250kg.  

I saw some of Dinamation's life-size models of _Velociraptor_ once, and
can't see how they could mass any more than a large wolf -- say,
40-50kg.  If anything, I favor the smaller end of that range,
considering the slender build and long tail.  _Deinonychus was larger, I
know, but not _that_ much larger, so I reckon it probably massed around
80kg or so.  _Utahraptor_ I don't know about; I'm not clear on how large
it was.  My guess is that the known species of dromaeosaur neatly
bracketed _Smilodon's_ size range, _Deinonychus_ smaller and
_Utahraptor_ larger.  

-- JSW