RE: Evolution of tyrannosauroid bite power

[Andrew Simpson <deathspresso@yahoo.com>]

What is the bite power compared to other known
Tyrannosaurs such as Albertosaurus, Daspleteosaurus et
all?

Andrew Simpson
TrilobiteComics.com

--- "Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu> wrote:

> > From: ptnorton [mailto:ptnorton@suscom-maine.net] 
> > Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 6:37 PM
> > To: tholtz@umd.edu; stearns5@cox.net;
> dinosaur@usc.edu
> > Subject: Re: Evolution of tyrannosauroid bite
> power
> > 
> > I'm wondering if the evolutionary increase in the
> jaw 
> > strength of tyrannosaurids is more a function of
> the adaptive 
> > response of the animal as a *system* to its
> environment, 
> > rather than just as some selective pressure acting
> on the 
> > jaws alone.  For example, it seems to me that an
> adaptive 
> > shift in behavior, from snatching and manipulating
> small prey 
> > (as in *Guanlong vucaii*,  in which the hands
> could do a 
> > large part of the work) to using the jaws to
> dispatch larger 
> > prey as quickly as possible (as in *T. 
> > rex*) would preferentially select for relatively
> smaller arms 
> > and relatively larger jaws. Animals are complex
> systems and 
> > need to be evaluated as such, more so than as a
> series of 
> > individual elements.
> > 
> Well, of course, and I think everyone working on
> this would agree exactly
> with that scenario.
> 
> But a biomechanical analysis must needs focus on one
> particular part of the
> organism, and later be integrated into other
> comparable systems.
> 
> Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
> Email: tholtz@umd.edu Phone: 301-405-4084
> Office: Centreville 1216                      
> Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
> Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
> http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
> Fax: 301-314-9661             
> 
> Faculty Director, Earth, Life & Time Program,
> College Park Scholars
> http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/
> Fax: 301-405-0796
> 
> Mailing Address:      Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
>                       Department of Geology
>                       Building 237, Room 1117
>                       University of Maryland
>                       College Park, MD 20742 USA 
> 
> 



      
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