Re: Forelimbs of "Terror Birds"

["Williams, Tim" <TiJaWi@agron.iastate.edu>]

A few days back I wrote:

> There is also Newton's suggestion (not mutually exclusive) that the
> forelimbs [of tyrannosaurids] were used by males as claspers during 
> copulation.

I checked; the notion that male tyrannosaurs used their arms as copulatory
claspers goes back to Osborn (1906), not Newton.  It was Newton who proposed
(1970) that the arms were used by tyrannosaurids to help pick themselves off
the ground - after a nap, for example.

By the way, and to echo Nick L.'s post - if somebody does find a reference
which describes manual claws in _Titanis_ (or any other phorusrhacid), I'd
love to hear about it too.



Tim