RE: Wacking Tyrannosaurs & Top Ten Carnivores

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

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> no go
>
>
> Given the latests talk about Big Al injuries, it raises up a
> question from
> me. Is it possible that Tyrannosaurids could take more wacking in general
> then other theropod due to the idea that their bones (not the
> limbs though)
> tended to be more heavily built and massive (at least in the brusier
> Tyrannosaurids) plus the fact that Tyrannosaurid skeletons
> indicate a life
> surviving pretty nasty injuries, even for an active, fast moving
> theropod.

I) There is no evidence that tyrannosaurids were more heavily built and
massive than other theropods of the same size.

II) There is no evidence that tyrannosaurids show a greater number of
injuries per individual than do non-tyrannosaurid theropods of the same
size.  There are many _Allosaurus_ skeletons, for example (Big Al, the USNM
paratype, etc.) that show significant healed damage.

> Subject: Ten Ton Carnivore
>
> http://www.geocities.com/mesozoicdinosaurs/tentoncarnivore
>
> Is my chain being yanked again?
>
Yank.  _Therizinosaurus_ was a) almost certainly not ten tons and b) almost
certainly not a carnivore.  Also, the skull on the image is _Allosaurus_: in
fact, it is the composite skull from Madsen's 1976 monograph.

Caveat surfor.  (Okay, so I have no idea what "surfer" (as in web-surfer)
would be in Latin...).

                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