Re: snap-action predation

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> I'm still unconvinced that SLC's and folding arms evovled for predation. I
> fail to see why reducing flexibility would help in grappling moving prey.

That way you don't need muscles to hold the prey in place.

> HP Jaime Headden mentioned Smilodon and some other big cats as having
> large, well-developed arms shoulders and chest to help grapple prey.
> This is true, but did they also reduce their flexibility and range of
motion?

Not knowing if they did, I suspect they couldn't. As quadrupeds, they needed
some mobility that a theropod could easily give up, e. g. the ability to
pronate and to flex the wrist in the dorsoventral plane. Do they have extra
big muscle attachment sites to compensate?