RE: Palms in

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> dbensen
>
> Apologies if this topic has already been hashed over on the DML,
> but I am asking
> which clades of dinosaurs held their hands birdwise, palms in?  I
> know that
> anything more birdlike then tyrannosaurs did, but what about the
> allosaurs, the
> staurikosaurs, or the prosauropods and ornithischians?  Where does the
> bird-wrist mutation happen?
>
Sereno has argued (at Dinofest 1998: no, I don't know when the volume is
coming out...) that all theropods held their hands palm-inward.  However, I
have seen handprints on probable coelophysoid tracks, which indicates they
could at least rotate their manus into such a position where the palm faced
downward.  Prosauropod tracks definitely show palms-downward when walking
quadrupedally.

Off hand, I'd think that tetanurines in general held palms-inward.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
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