Re: Tyrannosaurus - scavenger, my craggy butte

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Tim Donovan (uwrk2@yahoo.com) wrote:

<It would be interesting to know if the bulk of the bitten tails were
lambeosaurid or hadrosaurid. That might shed some light on which group was
faster or more survivable, and on the apparently greater success of
hadrosaurines by the late Maastrichtian.>

  To my knowledge, one specimen, a hadrosaurine (*Edmontonia annectens*)
shows this, otherwise it has not been reported. As for speed, this needs
to be done by investigating the musculature and probably ennervation of
them in the hip and limbs, that might permit one to assess the speed of
any species. Tracks show a moment, but don't always tell us how fast an
animal _can_ go. Animals may also have other means of defense, that have
not been recovered or are unrecoverable (scent, bad-tasting meat?) that
may skew results of a "most-bitten species" theory.


=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making leaps 
in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do.  We should all 
learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather than zoom by it.

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)

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