RE: T rex brooding

["Stewart, Dwight" <Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com>]

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Allan Edels [SMTP:edels@email.msn.com]
        Sent:   Wednesday, August 19, 1998 10:55 AM
        To:     dinosaur@usc.edu
        Subject:        Re: T rex brooding

            The _T. rex_ arm strength estimate was done at the Museum of the
Rockies
        in Bozeman, MT.  Jack Horner runs the Vert. Paleo. there, but I
recall that
        the work was done by Ken Carpenter, who was there at the time.

            The original estimates were based on the _T. rex_ that Horner
dug up
        that had the first complete set of arms.  I believe the lifting
power was
        320 lbs. in a single arm curl (I seem to remember that there was an
estimate
        if the arms were scaled up to a more robust form [ presumed female
by most],
        then it could curl 450 lbs).

            Allan Edels

        Yes, that sounds right.  I believe I heard this estimate in a
Discovery Channel interview with James Horner a year or 2 ago.  The grist of
the interview was
        The predator/scavenger "debate" that was new at that time.  IS
dimorphism an accepted fact in tyrannosaurs?  I'm NOT disputing it, I was
just wondering how much scientific evidence there is for it?

        Dwight
        -----Original Message-----
        From: Stewart, Dwight <Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com>
        To: 'larryf@capital.net' <larryf@capital.net>; dinosaur@usc.edu
        <dinosaur@usc.edu>
        Date: Tuesday, August 18, 1998 7:39 PM
        Subject: RE: T rex brooding

        SNIP

        > Okay, I see your point.  I've wondered about the arms myself.  WAS
        > evolution in the process of eliminating them?  We'll probably
never
        >know
        > that.  Didn't Dr. Horner (or was it Currie) estimate that an adult
        >tyrannosaur
        > could single-arm curl ~ 350 pounds???  Even with limited flexion
at
        > the "shoulder joint" (or perhaps, nearly none!) that's enormously
        >strong
        > for a 'human sized' limb.  In my distant youth I was a competive
        >power
        > lifter & the heaviest single-arm curl I ever heard of was 150
        >pounds.
        > IF the tyrannosaur forelimbs were as strong as some infer, that
        >would
        > seem to work in favor of 'breasting'.
        > Dwight
        >