RE: Triassic dinosaur evolution

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

> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] 
> On Behalf Of Mark Witton
>
> I really, really don't have time to write this, but the heads 
> of allosaurs, dromaeosaurs and a bunch of other 'saurs ain't 
> build for holding struggling animals. They may get there 
> first, but theropod arms are surely going to be holding 
> things in place while sickle claws, raking jaws or whatever 
> do the dirty work. Noteable exceptions to this, of course, as 
> tyrannosaurs, which appear to have jaws that both hold and 
> dispatch prey. Maybe that's why their arms were comparatively 
> diminutive. 
> 

Indeed.

See, among many other sources, Fastovsky & Smith's paleoecology chapter of
Dinosauria II; Farlow & my article in 2002 The Fossil Record of Predation;
my chapters in the 2003 Predator-Prey in the Fossil Record volume and in
this year's Larson & Carpenter T. rex volume; various articles by Carpenter
and by Senter over the years; Therrien et al.'s Bite Me chapter in The
Carnivorous Dinosaurs; etc.

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