Re: Giant flightless birds

[TomHopp@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/11/99 6:05:56 AM, larryf@capital.net writes:

<< What I can't readily see is why T_Rex (if it was always terrestrial) had 
lost the opposable quality of its digits. Again, it seems to make more sense 
that a terrestrial animal would always be in need of good grasping ability of 
its forelimbs for the procurement of prey. The only reason for loss of such 
ability, (that I can visualize) would be that the condition was inherited 
from an Avian ancestor that itself had lost the third digit. >>

Did you consider T. Rex's jaws? They look like fairly useful prey grasping 
devices. Maybe they obsoleted the hands as "second-best."
    And consider crocodiles and birds. What do they use for prey grasping? 
Yet they are phylogenetically on either side of T. Rex. Care to interpolate?
 -- Tom Hopp