Re: The absurdity, the absurdity (was: Cooperating theropods?)

[Chris Campbell <sankarah@ou.edu>]

tlford@ix.netcom.com wrote:
> >What else?  Intraspecific competition?  
> >Awful bloody for that.
> 
> True, but not totally unlikely.

Are there extant animals (herps or aves especially) who get that
violent?  I've always been under the impression that most intraspecific
competition in herps and avians was devoted to posturing and bluffs, and
rarely bloody; neither's really my field, though, so I'm not sure.  Do
some species get that violent, enough that developing methods for
inflicting injury on opponents is plausible?
 
> >And why would it be grooved for these purposes?
> 
> Are you talking about the groove on both sides of the claw? Thats for blood 
> vain that supply the
> kertin for the sheath. Just like the claws of cats and dogs. You don't want 
> to trim the nail
> close to that blood vain.

Ah, my mistake.  This has been mentioned before, but I couldn't recall
it for some reason.  I thought it was a blood groove, as seen on combat
knives; absurd, but the mind refused to function on that topic.  Thanks
for the elaboration/correction.

Chris