Dakota the Dinosaur Mummy

["franklin e. bliss" <frank@blissnet.com>]

Delurking for a moment.

None of the posted links seem to work for me so speaking from only the  
posts so far......

Notable indeed!

How does a "big ass" translate into the animal moved more quickly?   
Besides, filling a skin capsule could be with fat or fat marbling  
muscle instead of pure muscle.  Iguanas et al use their hind ends/ 
tails to store fat for instance.  I ask, is there a likely possibility  
other than the obvious inverse relationship that one would expect  
(that adding mass decreases speed)?  Having a "big ass" certainly  
could lower the center of gravity but that doesn't make a Ferrari out  
of a LandCruiser.  The biggest horses are not the fastest ones by any  
means.  That is why the Clydesdales pull beer wagons and don't go out  
jogging at the race track every day.  I'll place my wager on the T-rex  
(assuming they were hunters and not just overgrown vultures) against  
the "fat ass" (ed) hadrosaur any day and take odds on the bet.

Frank (Rooster) Bliss
MS Biostratigraphy
Weston, Wyoming
www.wyomingdinosaurs.com


On Dec 2, 2007, at 1:38 PM, MKIRKALDY@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 12/2/2007 3:16:07 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> jeff@jeffhecht.com writes:
> <I suspect this is an embargo break of a story  the National  
> Geographic
> Society has embargoed until closer to the time the  television show  
> airs. News
> Agencies may distribute the news earlier, but papers  are supposed  
> to honor the
> embargoes. >
>
> Possibly--there's more of the story on the National Geographic   
> website:
> http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/dinosaurs/scanning-a-dino-mummy 
> .
> html
>
> Notable  quote:
> "Based on the dimensions of Dakota’s skin capsule, paleontologists   
> have
> calculated that the duckbill’s posterior was 25 percent more massive  
> than
> expected. Manning puts it a bit crudely: 'This animal had a big  
> ass.' "
>
> Mary
>
>
>
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