RE: Deinocheirus - size stats?

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> no go
>
> That nice. Speaking on what kind of animal Deinocherus really was, it has
> surfaced a few times that certain dromaeosaurids-to-the-extreme advocates
> have been trying to "grab" Deinocherus to place as some kind of gigantic
> dromaeosaurid. Indicating latest theories on teeth found in the original
> Spinosaurus fossils and trackways attributed to Deinocherus as
> some kind of
> gigantic "raptor".
>
> Prehaps it slipped my mind then, but I didn't question how we could
> attribute teeth and tracks to an animal only known by its' arms?
> What do we
> make of this? Are they yanking my crank?

Consider your crank yanked.  Yeah, you are simply dealing with hardcore
raptor-philes.

Incidentally, the teeth found with the original _Spinosaurus_ (or at least
the biggest teeth found with it) are nothing like dromaeosaurids in shape.
Furthermore, I know of know trackways that have been attributed to
_Deinocheirus_, and suggest that the posters may have made them up out of
whole cloth.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796