Re: Ceratopsian gait (was Re: Oviraptor)

[rjmeyer@ix.netcom.com (Rob Meyerson)]

Jeffery Martz writes,

>      The _Torosaurus_ mount that was mentioned in 
>"Functional Morphology in Vertebrate Paleontology" may have gotten at
>least some of the sprawl from the orinetation of the ribs.  Greg Paul has
>mentioned in the past that rib orientation palys a big part in how badly
>the animal sprawls; if the ribs swing out to far, the scapula, and
>therefore the glenoid, are also twisted around so that the entire forelimb
>would sprawl.

I have heard a few people use this argument to totally discredit Johnson and 
Ostrom.  This may be going to far.  The experiment that Johnson and Ostrom came 
up with was to make models of the shoulder and forelimb bones, and articulate 
them from there.  Please note that they ran their experiment using ONLY these 
bones (the rib cage never entered the equasion).  How they articulate the 
shoulder on the rib cage is irrelevant to their results.  However, I do agree 
that they placed the limbs to high on the rib cage.


Shalom,

Rob Meyerson

***
"Listen to the song, not the words."
                -Kosh