Re: Question regarding allosaur saltation??

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

Kent wrote:

>I was just thinking about a scene in the WWD episode
>"Time of the titans" in which an Allosaurus is shown
>leaping onto the back of the Diplodocus...
>How feasible would a movement like that be for a 1.5
>tonne allosaur? I really don't doubt that it had the
>power to jump like that, but I wonder how well it
>could have withstood the stress of a landing.


Even if the Allosaur had the chance to land properly on the back (which
maybe resulted in the breaking of it's shin or toe-bones) of a Diplodocus,
the chances that it would actually stay on it is a different story. Look at
the dorsal skeletal recontruction by Greg Paul in the "Scientific American
Book of Dinosaurs" of this behemoth, the body is nearly cilinder-shape in
it's form. Round surfaces give very little grip, possibly resulting in that
the poor Allosaur would slide of the Diplodocus and have the chance it head
could be squashed by a hindlimb.

Rutger Jansma