UTAHRAPTOR'S CLAWS

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

On the claws of _Utahraptor_, Luis Rey wrote...

> And we have to remember that the 'killer claw' was the
> roughly the same size as the hand's. And the hands had THREE of 
> those EACH!

I think I recall that Phil Currie regarded the 'manual' claws of 
_Utahraptor_ as pedal claws in his paper on _Dromaeosaurus_ (JVP 15: 
576-91). Actually, it may not have been this paper, but I definitely 
remember _someone_ saying that the claws identified as coming from 
_Utahraptor_'s hands actually belonged to its feet. 

Also, Currie concluded that _Utahraptor_ was a dromaeosaurine, not a 
velociraptorine, largely because _Utahraptor_ lacks the enlarged 
second premaxillary tooth seen in velociraptorines. 

"They tell us that freedom nestles in the barrel of a warm gun"

DARREN NAISH
darren.naish@port.ac.uk