RE: sorry - replied wrong: RE: toofs

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu>]

> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] 
> On Behalf Of Hammer
>
> >>I don't know what this statement was in refernce to.
> >>
> >>However, no: the largest T. rex teeth are absolutely larger 
> than the 
> >>largest Daspletosaurus teeth.
> >
> >Thank you - that was a statement from another dino book that 
> really was 
> >bugging me as impractical / improbable.
> >The author additionally stated that Das. had a more robust skeleton 
> >than T. Rex.
> >A shorter, heavier foot, for example.

They are... Confused. (I'll be polite).

> >>
> >>Because carcharodontosaurids simply retained the ancestral 
> condition 
> >>rather than evolving a new state. Different strokes (or 
> bites) for different folks.
> >>
> >
> >But it would "seem" that due to the large sauropods running around 
> >South America, at least, that these guys would need to have evolved 
> >relatively larger dentition to deal with them - of course, we don't 
> >know what sizes were 'targets' and probably not the adult 
> larger-sized 
> >titanosaurs  .... ?
> >Would a bite from a large Giganotosaurus to a titanosaur 
> neck have more 
> >or less inflicted a mortal wound?

If Allosaurus and Acrocanthosaurus teeth were sufficient to kill their
sauropods (albeit perhaps with aid of talon-based wounds), why wouldn't the
even-larger Giganotosaurus teeth be sufficient?

The different sized (and more importantly, shaped!) teeth of tyrannosaurids
most likely represents a different in the style of their feeding, not in the
size of the "target audience." Ditto spinosaurid teeth.

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