Re: Juvenile Tarbosaurus skull indicates different feeding strategy

[Tim Williams <tijawi@gmail.com>]

Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au> wrote:

> A similar situation is seen in Great White sharks. Juveniles less than about 
> 3m in length lack the
> jaw strength to tackle the marine mammals that adults prefer to target. They 
> have the necessary
> teeth and jaw musculature, however the jaw 'bone' itself can't handle the 
> stresses involved.
>
> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101202124556.htm
> http://www.jbiomech.com/article/S0021-9290(10)00543-9/abstract



Nice analogy.  Great white sharks are 'awkward teenagers'.  Further,
this is the age at which great whites are most likely to attack
humans.  It's not malice, just curiosity - and testing out their
hardware.


(If anyone is interested, I have a PDF of the Great white shark jaw
biomechanics paper by Ferrara et al. [2011], which Dann linked.  It
also includes a nice comparison with the jaws of the sandtiger shark,
better known as the grey nurse to Australians and ragged-tooth shark
to South Africans.  Despite it's fearsome appearance, it's pretty much
a teddy bear - in contrast to the great white, which is the real
deal.)




Cheers

Tim