Re: Therizinosaur Feeding (with a little fun, I hope)

["RAY STANFORD" <STARSONG@prodigy.net>]

    Timothy Williams observed in a post, today:

"Russell and Russell (1993) suggest a chalicothere-analog for
_Therizinosaurus_.  Like _Chalicotherium_ (a horse & rhino relative from the
Tertiary), the long arms and claws of _Therizinosaurus_ may have been used
for pull down large tree branches to bring the leaves within reach of the
mouth.  They picture Therizinosaurus as a short-tailed prosauropod-like
herbivore, with extremely long forelimbs and fingers, perhaps sitting down
during feeding."

    That certainly eems a reasonable deduction.

    Now, a LESS-REASONABLE deduction:

    Long ago and far away from the USA, an Italian explorer found a
wonderful food (in China), SPAGETTI (but it was not called that by the
Chinese). Yet, ever after,  the delicacy was an Italian favorite.

    If, as did spagetti, Therizinosaurs originated in China (?), those long,
poorly curved claws might have been an adaptation to sorting, holding, and
feeding on SPAGETTI in China long before the advent of humankind!  [After
all, did the Chinese ever tell Marco Polo -- or whomever -- that THEY
invinted spagetti?! ;)]

    O.K., that's "feces of a male bovine", but the seemingly 'implausible'
nature of the beast leads, at times, into fantasy.  It's human  nature:
make myth to explain the unknown.

    Serious point, though:  even if humor isn't 'the spice' of science,
surely the Therizinosaur is -- at least for now -- a nice catalyst to
intellectual exercise.   Anyone care to offer some further REASONABLE
speculation on Therizinoisaur feeding?

    Please:  This is not intended to start a Therizinosaur humor thread.  I
have only said this with humor to emphasize the possibility that
Therizinosaurs (at least sometimes) used those now human-startling claws in
ways we may not yet have imagined.

    For example, is it at-least-remotely-feasible that one 'side benefit' or
'spin-off' of those great claws might have been to POLLINATE some type of
odd (to us, now)flowers that could have provided (indirectly) food for those
wonderful beasts?  Of course, bees would likely have done a better job in
most cases, but I don't recall -- off-hand-- just when bees appeared, even
though I suspect it was at least in time to serve flowering plants of the
earliest Cretaceous.

    After all, if modern humans had never observed live parrots and heard at
least one talk, would we EVER guess, from skeletal material, alone, that an
African Grey parrot can talk [O.K., mimmic, if you don't believe research at
U. of TX  in San Antonio] so well, of, even AT ALL??


    Sweet Therizinosaur dreams.

    Ray Stanford