Re: Regarding Spinosaurus

[Waylon Rowley <whte_rbt_obj@yahoo.com>]

David Marjanovic wrote:

> > wouldn't you expect frequent damage to the bone if
> > the animal missed its target?
 
> No, why? It's bone and not paper :-) , and the
> dentaries of (long-beaked)
> piscivorous birds are likewise lateromedially
> compressed. But I can't
> dismiss your idea, it's certainly a possibility.

     I figured that if a large skull like that hit the
shore bottom it might cause some damage to the thinner
elements. A tiny bird could recover, but a large
spinosaur would have alot of inertia behind the head. 
     
    The posteriorly-migrated nares might indicate that
the tip of the snout was submerged often enough to
make some modification to the region necessary. I'd
like to know what position the internal nares were in,
because if the animal kept much of its jaws in the
water I would expect them to be pushed further back
too. One final question: Does procumbent dentition
indicate (_Masiakasaurus_ excluded) anything about the
strategy used when fishing for a meal? Do animals that
have such dentition "snatch" fish with a quick jab?   
   
    What reason to we have to speculate that
spinosaurs fed like a Heron? Maybe someone with a
different mindset could give me a few pointers.  
    
Cheers,
Waylon Rowley

"My train of thought has become a runaway caboose."

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