Re: Humor: the Uses of Sickle Claws

[pattihm@pop.mindspring.com]

Ralph Miller wrote:

> Yes, it may have had 101 uses.  Even if it was used primarily for offense,
> we can only imagine how it was actually employed.  It is presumably easier
> to refute scenarios that would appear improbable than to truly <prove> how
> these weapons were actually used.  Even so, animal behavior has a way of
> surprising people who think they've seen everything.  
> 
> Back (again!) to the subject of dromaeosaurs using but a single ungual per
> pes as a primary means of attack (in concert with the manual unguals and
> teeth, of course): if it would be such a bad idea to attack in this
> fashion, then would someone please explain to me why humans (who could
> clearly fashion weapons to any specification imaginable) prefer to stab,
> gouge, lacerate, and otherwise do serious bodily harm (to fellow humans
> and/or other animals) with manual weapons which have but a single blade
> rather than a rake-like arrangement? 

While this is a "bit" off topic . . but only slightly, in the process 
of wondering how right or left handedness might effect this question 
I wondered if research has come up dinosaur skeletons that show 
clearly an animals predilection . . for one or the other.  Are the 
bones heavier in a dromaeosaur's favored arm/leg?

Just curious . . . don't mean to change topics.

Patti Mason