Dinosaur FM

[funkedup]

Dude these guys could give HTC some great FM data on T-Rex!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020227/ap_on_sc/t_rex_s_stride_1

My favorite part was Martin Lockley, professor of geology and handsomehunk:

Animals are not machines. These animals were dynamic and flexible...

Uhh machines ARE dynamic and flexible.  What does this guy think all the engineers spend all their time figuring out in those big buildings, the ones where all the research funding goes?

It just goes to show that ignorant FM whiners are everywhere, not just AH.  

"T-Rex could run, I saw it on Land of the Lost!"

"F4U could out-turn A6M, I saw it on Baa Baa Black Sheep!"

OK OT I know, but....

[Tac]

Theres actually a good debate going on about the T-rex. Its quite probable the T-rex was a scavenger 1st and a hunter 2nd.


For one, a Predator would definetely NOT benefit from such short arms. They are useless for grappling a foe, useless for anything BUT holding down something that cant move any more (a carcass).

Then you have the massive feet and bulk. Chances are its top speed was really slow, another thing that a predator NEEDS to develop. Plus its toe/talons were shown as being not very good at absorbing shocks..like the one caused by running. A scavenger oth, actually SAVES energy by moving slowly as it moves towards the next meal.

They may have hunted large, slow dinosaurs like the bronto or something.

[pimpjoe]

me and a buddy of mine were talking about the prehistoric stuff just today. im not very intelligent on this subject...but it seems to me that a lot of scientist today are stating things of which, to me, they have no logical way to figure out.

i was watching a program on the discovery channel about a bunch of prehistoric toejam. they were stating "facts" about things like eye sight, appatite, even what thier favorite meals were. how would they figure stuff like this out?

is this just a tad "off" to anybody else?

[Glasses]

Fossil toejam?

[Qnm]

Pimpjoe, you can tell a lot from characteristics of bones etc, and comparing it it to other known related cases; reptiles and general biodynamics in this context.

There was a mechanical study of the TRex's skeleton (and implied body) that 'guessed' it could not run too fast for too long (as two independent vars) without exceeding it's balance.

It was something a bit if not much slower than what Jurassic Park (I or II....?) shows chasing the jeep.  Made a comparison instead of a number because I can't remember the exact speed the article gave.

[Sox62]

A bull elephant can scoot right along.I wonder if these "geniuses" tried applying that model to one of those...lmao.

[K West]

Of course you all know it was Kurt Tank who layed out the enginerring for the first  TA-Rex/ru-1  after stealing the basics from the earlier Howard Hughes'  Allosaurus racing meat eater.

 

[Qnm]

Men walk.
Apes walk.
Men are apes.

[funkedup]

but it seems to me that a lot of scientist today are stating things of which, to me, they have no logical way to figure out.

That's exactly what these guys are trying to confront.  They are doing a physical analysis of the remains and using modern simulation tools to come up with an upper bound for the speed of locomotion of the animal.  I.e. taking the claims of the fuzzy thinkers and seeing how well they stand up to the laws of physics.  Now without reading their paper I can't say whether their analysis was valid or not, but having some familiarity with the subject I can tell you that gait dynamics and control is a fairly well understood field.  It wouldn't be "rocket science" to look at the skeleton of the animal and create a mathematical model to come up with an estimate of the maximum speed it could reach.

[Tac]

Apes dont walk. They can stand on their back feet and (and i'll steal an anime term here) "gerwalk". The pelvis of gorillas and chimps and any other primate except humans only allows them to stand upright,albeit not for very long, and it does not allow them to run on their back feet. They may hop, wobble around, but when they run or have to do something important, they do it in all 4's.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by Qnm
Men walk.
Apes walk.
Men are apes.

LOL, lets try that logic this way:

Fish lay eggs.
Chickens lay eggs.
Fish are chickens.

[Glasses]

Some men Are apes

[Naso]

Originally posted by Tac


They may have hunted large, slow dinosaurs like the bronto or something.

The apatosaurus (real name of brontosaurus) can be compared with the elefant, almost the same biological niche.

Like the elefant today, the apatosaurus, brachiosaurus, etc. etc. had no predators capable to hunt them, a 7 tons predator (a T-rex) vs. a 70 tons pray (in case of a Brachiosaurus), with a very dangerous tail (think, the Brachiosaurus tail was heavier of the entire T-rex).
Anyway they are of different times: Giurassic and cretacic.

BTW, there's a theory about the T-rex as a ambush hunter, jumping out from wood to attack the pray.

It's really difficult to say if was scavenger or hunter, the structure can adapt for both roles, the real problem is the metabolism, it depends if the actual bird metabolism was already present in dinosaurs or is a recent acquisition.

If the metabolism was "hot blood" (or somethink like), they had the energy to run to the pray.

Like the Dromaeousaridae family(Velociraptor and similia).

Something like the lion.

Hide (incredible, uh?)..

Move slowly to attack position.

and then RUN!!! for few seconds...

Missed, damn, I suck

Rest for a while

[hitech]

And some men are Chickens.

[mrsid2]

Women lay eggs also periodically, is that why some call them chicken?

When you call a woman chicken outloud, you get moved down on the pecking order (which is a very chickenish feature in itself.)