Re: hadrosaur tail injuries

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

> Over a decade ago, Darren wrote:  "Since then we have been actively
collecting examples of Hadrosaur tail pathology... We have several hundred
(neural spines) with injuries,most of which are isolated occurrences.
However, some articulated tails also show injuries.

_Healed_ injuries?

> We have at our museum a partial skeleton of an Edmontosaurus where 26 of
the first 35 tail vertebrae show injuries identical  to those of Carpenter's
specimen."

Makes a sample of 2. :-)

> > 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.

Worse yet, tracks tend to get preserved in soft mud -- I wouldn't run top
speeds on soft mud.

> 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.<
>
> IIRC Evans's research suggests the lambeosaurid sense of smell may have
been poor.

Why?