I went to a lecture a number of years ago by John Horner, author of "Digging Dinosaurs". He has done quite a bit of work on T. Rex and talked about how he and his colleagues worked out the capabilities of T. Rex. and drew some conclusions about where it fit in the ecosystem of the time it lived. By identifying the places on the bones where the muscles were attached, they could estimate the strength in the animal's "arms", concluding that the T. Rex could only lift about 300 lbs. By comparing the length of the upper leg to the lower, they could determine that the T. Rex was not a fast runner. By XRaying the skull they could determine that the olfactory lobe was much larger than the visual lobe, which is characteristic of a scavenger. Horner therefore concluded that the T. Rex was more likely a scavenger than a predator. By careful investigation quite a bit can be learned about the habits of a dinosaur. Horner was careful to note that his conclusions were
tentative, but I imagine they will stand for some time.
William E. (Bill) Hamilton, Ph.D. Member ASA
248.821.8156 (mobile)
"...If God is for us, who is against us?" Rom 8:31
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Received on Mon Jun 9 00:21:13 2008
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