Keeping it simple; given that all theropods were constructed of the same
materials, wouldn't relative arm size be expected to generally decrease as
overall size increased, irregardless of the implications of diet?
Don
----- Original Message ----
From: ptnorton <ptnorton@suscom-maine.net>
To: Dinosaur list mail <dinosaur@usc.edu>; tholtz@umd.edu
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 2:07:39 PM
Subject: RE: Evolution of tyrannosauroid bite power
Tom Holtz wrote on Thu, 20 Dec 2007 08:25:19 -0500
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.
That is the traditional approach, but methods for analyzing the motion
of
complex (i.e., multi-part) mechanical *systems* are being developed
that
show a lot of promise for analyzing biomechanical systems. The
methodological problem in analyzing each part of an animal separately
is
that the parts are not independent of one another. Analyzing them as a
complex biomechanical system with multiple dependent parts is an effort
to
get away from that problem. For an example from mechanics, see Hong and
Cipra's 2003 paper illustrating a method to analyze the motion of
complex
cable-pulley systems, which can be found on-line at
http://www.me.vt.edu/romela/RoMeLa/Publications_files/JMD2003_CablePulley.pdf.
It's probably not the best example, but it's useful for illustrating
the
distinction I was trying to make. It seems to me that the relationship
between arm size and bite power, or arm strength and hip strength,
offer
some real potential for using this type of systems analysis.
PTJN
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