Re: Emus a Model for Dinosaurs?

[Michael Mortimer <mickey_mortimer111@msn.com>]

Michael Skrepnick wrote-

> Lack of a 4th trochanter would seem to be a far more overwhelming obstacle 
> to performing traditional bipedal theropod locomotion ( where then in fact 
> is the origin for a caudofemoral retractor in Caudipteryx? ) than the 
> alternative, a primitive knee driven movement supported by slender femora. 
> . . essentially, does a missing 4th + "convergent?" knee driven locomotion 
> trump the lack of a derived ( if even necessary? ) robust femor ?

The absence of a fourth trochanter in itself probably had little effect on 
locomotion.  Velociraptor's femur has a large fourth trochanter, for 
instance, while that of Deinonychus lacks even a discernable scar.  Yet the 
genera are extremely similar in morphology otherwise, and Deinonychus 
certainly lacks neornithine proportions.

Mickey Mortimer