Re: Turtles and dinosaur predators (Re: Oviraptorids as Parrots?)

[Phil Bigelow <bigelowp@juno.com>]

On Mon, 06 Feb 2006 08:52:48 -0500 "Thomas R. Holtz, Jr."
<tholtz@geol.umd.edu> writes:

> Note: there were giant species of _Geochelone_ (subnote: possibly 
> not a clade, but simply a form genus for whenever tortoises get
> too big :-) on mainland North and South America during the 
> Pleistocene, so however they dealt with it, bigass turtles can live 
> with
> real predators.


The difference being that terrestrial Quaternary megapredators could not
swallow a 1+-meter tortoise in one piece.  ;-)

What is the estimated maximum diameter that an adult _T. rex_'s esophagus
could stretch to?  Are there any published educated guesses on this
subject?

<pb>
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