Re: Guts-Eating Spinosaurs

["Fam Jansma" <fam.jansma@worldonline.nl>]

Jordan wrote:

>This reminds me: hasn't it been shown that the snout kink seen in
>coelophysoids actually served to somehow reinforce the skull (ref?)?  If
so,
>then does the same apply to the spinosaurids?
>
Has there been a comparison between the two families except for Paul in his
Predatory Dinosaurs of the World in which he argues they are related?
>
>Well, firstly, that's assuming the position of _Baryonyx_ within the
>Spinosauridae is well understood, which I don't believe it is.  And
>secondly, I just want to point out that _Herrerasaurus_ is more basal than
>_T. rex_, and yet the latter has much "sturdier" jaws.  I'm not so sure
that
>being basal correlates at all with being "sturdy."
>
Herrerasaurus and Tyrannosaurus are both a poor comparison, since their
skulls look nothing alike those of the Spinosaurs which are relatively
narrow. But remember T.rex specially evolved this type of skull for
enhancing the strenght in it's teeth by making more room for extra
root-space. He evolved it to handle bones-crushing, which I don't think
Herrerasaurus was capable of. We can never be sure though, since no dino-poo
has ever been found in the Ischigualastia-beds and with no evidence, it's
just speculation.
>
>Of what?  _Spinosaurus moroccanus_?  There hasn't yet been an entire skull
>described.
>
No, not the total skull, that maxilla that has been dug out of the ground
from around 2ft long, that skull. And according to Jaime Headden, when
reconstructed, it would have had that long of a skull. Relatively very low,
but the skull of Spinosaurs already did look like a pair of tweezers.
>
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