Posted on 10/22/2014 6:29:16 AM PDT by C19fan
They may have been plant-eaters, but stegosaurs were no easy prey: Researchers have found the fossil remains of what might be a deadly wound inflicted by the creature's spiked tail.
Stegosaur tails have been a matter of some debate. While paleontologists used to say they were only for decoration, recent studies have suggested that the spiked, dexterous tails were actually used in combat. In 2005, researchers reported that a non-fatal wound found in the fossil of an allosaur -- a fearsome predator of stegosaurus's age -- was most likely inflicted by a stegosaur tail.
But it turns out that those tails could do more than just keep predators at bay. They may have been deadly under the right circumstances.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Reminder of the great Far Side cartoon.
A caveman professor is pointing to the spiky ball end of a Stegosaurus tail and saying to the caveman class, And this is the Thagomizer, named after the late Thag, who discovered it.
Heavens to Betsy. You mean after all these years the science isn't even settled on THAT?
But we're absolutely certain that cow farts and SUVs are warming the globe.
"...????...reminds me of a girl I knew at the pet shop
she had to leave after a few months because people kept
asking how big she was gonna get"
Thank you.
I always laugh when I hear descriptions of plant-eating dinosaurs as “peaceful.”
The most deadly animal (outside of man and mosquitoes) in Africa is the Hippo, a plant eater.
Those big-framed water-dwelling dinos would be no different.
Have you ever been whipped by a boxer? There is a reason that they get bobbed as puppies.
A good tail can do a lot of damage. Works with women, too.
Let’s pray that Michael Moore does not grow one of those...
“While paleontologists used to say they were only for decoration.”
This is what you get with the elite schools!? What dunder head never learned that nature enables these things for a purpose. Oh wait—these were for attracting the opposite sex.
Thanks C19fan.
A peacock’s wing can draw blood if it hits you in the face.
I had pet gray geese when I was a kid. They would lower their heads close to the ground and try to grab people’s pants leg or shoe, then they would proceed to beat you with their wings. It was painful.
Evolution theory posits that something like the Stegotharus’ tail developed for a reason.
Decorative displays are usually for sexual attraction of the opposite sex. And such displays are usually on only one sex of a species. For example, the male peacock has all the colorful feathers.
It’s hard to imagine a appendage shaped like a war club would be sexually attractive to both sexes of these animals unless they were both into S&M.
Hey, if humans are, why not stegos?
I strongly approve of science, but real science is never settled. Years ago, I used the stegosaurus tail as an example to teach my kids that science can be wrong and that they should consider the facts for themselves. It’s nice to be proven right sooner instead of later.
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