RE: Dino-lips (was Re: Poison thero-teeth?)

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

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
Christopher Srnka
Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2001 5:28 PM
To: j_mallon@hotmail.com
Cc: dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: Re: Dino-lips (was Re: Poison thero-teeth?)


Jordan Mallon wrote:

> >From: "aspidel" <aspidel@infonie.be>
>
>
> I think I should also add to this discussion Tracy Ford's obseration that
a
> number of tyrannosaurids ("Stan" the _T. rex_ and what some consider to be
> _Nanotyrannus_) had maxillary teeth that would have been much too long to
> have been covered by the lips from the lower jaw.  In fact, in "Stan's"
> case, the maxially teeth protrude past the bottom of the mandible, the
> making any type of tooth-covering lip highly dubious, at best.
> That said, along with phylogenetic bracketing, I seriously doubt any
> theropods had lips.
>
>

I was under the impression that Stan's teeth are protruding unnaturally
because
of some kind of pathology; why do other _T.rex_ specimens not exhibit the
same
amount of protrusion?<<

That's what I believe. One day I'll write up what the pathology, IMHO, is.
Also, Stan isn't the only theropod that had its upper teeth hang below the
edge of the dentary. The new small Ceratosaurus specimen shows this as does
other theropods. And dinosaurs aren't the only group that shows this. Some
rauischids also show this, other archosauromorphs, diapsids, etc.

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