Re: Venomous archosaurs

[Betty Cunningham <bettyc@flyinggoat.com>]

Gila monsters and beaded lizards are both venomed lizards.

As I recall Chrichton had the Oviraptors in his book as the venomous
spiiters becasue of those wierd pallette pointy-tooth things that
(Ingenia?) has.  

-Betty


dbensen wrote:
> 
> I would be VERY surprised if we found a venomous archosaur.  Few reptiles have
> the stuff (snakes being the notable exception, but relatively few in species
> compared to the rest of reptilia), only one species of bird (that I know of) 
> has
> it (you referred to this bird in your email) and only one group of mammals, 
> the
> monotremes have it.  The proteins  that make a neurotoxin are very complex 
> and I
> doubt they'd evolve readily.  It might be conceivable that a dinosaur would
> cough up stomach acid on its food to pre-digest it (although, now that I think
> of it, the stones in the crop would do a better job) and there is a pretty 
> good
> chance that bacteria living in the teeth might infect the wound and thereby 
> lead
> to death soon after being bitten (Tyrannosaurus has been said to have that
> ability).  How would one find fossilized evidence of venom, anyway.  
> Suspicious
> channels in the mouth could be used for lots of different things.  Would there
> be any foolproof way of detecting venom (if we were really lucky, would the
> glands fossilize like the liver of Scipionyx?)
> 
> Dan

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