Re: Scubasaurus!!!

[William Gibson Parker <wgp@dana.ucc.nau.edu>]

I have a really hard time considering a Tyrannosaur, a good swimmer.  The
arms would be useless, and the balance of the animal would seem to be off.
It would seem to be almost suicide for a Tyrannosaur to enter deeep water. 
-Bill Parker Northern Arizona University

On Sat, 8 Aug 1998, Jordan Mallon wrote:

> Hi again tout le monde,
>    First off, I'd like to say thanks to all who contributed to my 
> "theropod sunglasses" idea.  Secondly, I'd like to raise a new point.  
>    Reading "PDW," I had to disagree with Gregory Paul's idea that 
> herbivorous dinosaurs were far from being safe when chased into the 
> water by large theropods (p. 45).  If an Apatosaurus louisae (as 
> depicted in the book) swam into 40 feet of water, it would have been 
> more than safe from a pack of Allosaurus atrox.  I say this because what 
> would the attackers have done once they killed the apatosaur out so 
> deep?  If the victim didn't sink first, the allosaurs would have had 
> three choices
> 1) eat and swim at the same time.
> 2) go back ashore and wait for the carcass to wash up.
> 3) somehow climb atop the dead body and eat the dead dino, then have to 
> swim back on a full belly.
> I think all three choices are a little hard to imagine happening.
>    Mr. Paul did raise the point, though, that there have been footprints 
> found which seem to indicate some theropods chasing iguanodonts out of 
> the water.  So maybe a predatory dinosaur would follow prey out deep in 
> hopes to chase it back to shore.  
>    Does anyone have any thoughts on this?  I sure hope this hasn't been 
> brought up before or I just waisted my time.  Thanks.
> 
> -  Jordan Mallon
> 
> PS-  I think the only point Mr. Paul was trying to make was that 
> theropods were good swimmers.  I just took the thought a step further.