Re: biggest predators (Allosaurid "Dynasty")

["Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Ken Kinman wrote:

> The only time I ever liked T. rex was when it saved the
> day at the end of Jurassic Park.  By the way, does the book explain how T. 
> rex got inside the building

Michael Crichton's book is quite different from the movie, and that scene is 
not present in the book.  The sequel differed even more from the book - all 
that _The Lost World_ the book and _The Lost World_ the movie had in common 
was the title.  Oh, and they both had dinosaurs and some precocious 
children.

> (did the Velociraptors leave the delivery door
> open or what???).

I think the _T. rex_ squeezed his way in through the catflap.  ;-)


> P.S.  If I thought there was much chance carcharodontosaurs would turn out
> to be closer to the abelisaurs, I would probably recognize a separate 
> Family
> Carcharodontosauridae.  But they fit so nicely in Allosauridae, I don't
> think that is very probable.

Yikes, what a shemozzle.  [Shemozzle (noun); slang:  Confusing or 
disorganized situation; mess.]  All this horsetrading to see if one clade 
gets to be a family or not.  If carcharodontosaurs are closer to allosaurids 
than abelisaurids, then they get lumped in with the allosaurids; but if they 
happen to be closer to the abelisaurids than to the allosaurids, then the 
carcharodontosaurs deserve their own family...
Wouldn't it just be so much easier to draw a cladogram instead of wracking 
one's brains to determine what rank each lineage deserves?

By the way, on the issue of _Epanterias amplexus_, the status of this 
species has been raised in the past.  It's an invalid species, since the 
type material belongs to an indeterminate allosaur.  There's a lot of good 
stuff in the archives on _Epanterias_.


Tim


------------------------------------------------------------

Dr Timothy J. Williams

USDA/ARS Researcher
Agronomy Hall
Iowa State University
Ames IA 50014

Phone: 515 294 9233
Fax:   515 294 3163

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