RE: Vorona and Sickle Claws

["Tracy L. Ford" <dino.hunter@home.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
ekaterina amalitzkaya
Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2001 8:41 PM
To: qilongia@yahoo.com; dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: Re: Vorona and Sickle Claws

* 2) Oviraptorosauria contains strictly only animals closer to
>*Oviraptor* than to birds, ornithomimosaurs, or therizinosaurs.

So I presume this definition of oviraptorosaurs does include the
Caenagnathids. Was there not talk of some "Triebold Chirostenotes" that was
really massive- is its pes know? This Chirostenotes could still make the
ovis amidsts largest maniraptorans even if Therizis are not considered
maniraptorans. <<

Just about every part of the skeleton is known from at least 2 specimens of
the large Chirostenotes. At the Tuscon Rock Show Mike Triebold had a cast of
the skeleton. Very impressive to say the least and it has what I've said for
at least 2 decades, a short tail!

*
* But this obviously cannot be the largest beacuse we forget
the looming presence of the great Deinocheirus- a Deinonychosaur or an
ornithomimosaur. Deinocheirus does not look like a therizinosaur at all.
What ever it was must have been very impressive.

It wouldn't surprise me that Deinocheirus was a large Therizinosaur.


>indicate locomotion on soft, porous or fluvial substrate, as in
>sand, mud, very wet and gooey or shifty substrates, etc. These
>feet are not in any way predatory.

Interesting paleobiological thought: do you think it was a piscivore fishing
with those long hand claws? Or was it sandcat analog hunting in the deserts.
Does this inference of yours also hold good for the Caenagnathids?<<

When I was at the NMC (Natures Museum of Canada) I photographed a large
ornithimimid claw. It was missing the tip and was about 9 cm long. I think
that if the tip was there it would have been about 13-15 cm long! After the
NMC I went to the AMNH and was looking at the Ornithimimds there to mentally
compare with the NMC claw. I think that that would be the largest North
American Ornithimimid so far known.


Tracy L. Ford
P. O. Box 1171
Poway Ca  92074