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The neural spines of Acrocanthosaurus; Why did it have them?
Topic Started: Jul 1 2014, 07:17 AM (2,219 Views)
Thalassophoneus
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What were some probable uses of the tall neural spines of Acrocanthosaurus? Write your opinions here.
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Thalassophoneus
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UnknownDino
Jul 1 2014, 07:17 AM
What were some probable uses of the tall neural spines of Acrocanthosaurus? Write your opinions here.
Sorry if my signature picture is covering part of the screen
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Thalassophoneus
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My signature has kind of ruined it. I apologize!
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Jinfengopteryx
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This has been discussed in the first description on page 714 to 715. You can read it here:
http://home.comcast.net/~theropod-archives/pdf/Stovall_1950_AmMidNat_43(3)_696_NS.pdf
The greatest problem in this question is probably that we assume morphological similarity to its relatives which lack such structures on their backs. The muscle attachment is possible, but there is no explanation why Acrocanthosaurus would have needed it more than its relatives. If it lived in drier climate than its relatives, fat storage would be plausible.
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The Reptile
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I would not consider it having any other relevance aside from potentially anchoring musculature to provide for more forceful feeding strategies. Allosauria as a whole did not need the capability of overpowering prey (or even using very power-related killing for that matter). Instead, like many other theropod groups, they would have relied primarily on sheer weaponry factors as opposed to overpowering
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Thalassophoneus
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Is it true that Acrocanthosaurus might have been a scavenger.
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Ausar
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It definitely would have scavenged if given the chance like all other carnivores, but I don't know where you're going with this.
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DinosaurFan95
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^ this is mentioned as a probible lifestyle for an acro in a book.


I personally think they are for fat storage.
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Hatzegopteryx
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KaizerGoji
Mar 23 2015, 05:37 AM
Is it true that Acrocanthosaurus might have been a scavenger.
No, it'd rather starve, since eating a carcass is just so uproarious.
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Thalassophoneus
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Allosaurusatrox
Mar 23 2015, 06:14 AM
^ this is mentioned as a probible lifestyle for an acro in a book.

Yes. It's a book called "Field guide to dinosaurs". I think it mentions that Acrocanthosaurus was stinking and it was feeding with corpses because it was too sluggish. This kinda makes sense cause it had that huge sail or hump thing on its back which must have been extra weight. Also, read this from Wikipedia.
"The skull of the Acrocanthosaurus atokensis holotype shows light exostotic material on the squamosal. The neural spine of the eleventh vertebra was fractured and healed while the neural spine of its third tail vertebra had an unusual hook-like structure."
Isn't it possible that Acrocanthosaurus was getting sick by eating corpses full of bacteria and other disgusting stuff?
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DarkGricer
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KaizerGoji
Mar 24 2015, 03:37 AM
Allosaurusatrox
Mar 23 2015, 06:14 AM
^ this is mentioned as a probible lifestyle for an acro in a book.

Yes. It's a book called "Field guide to dinosaurs". I think it mentions that Acrocanthosaurus was stinking and it was feeding with corpses because it was too sluggish. This kinda makes sense cause it had that huge sail or hump thing on its back which must have been extra weight. Also, read this from Wikipedia.
"The skull of the Acrocanthosaurus atokensis holotype shows light exostotic material on the squamosal. The neural spine of the eleventh vertebra was fractured and healed while the neural spine of its third tail vertebra had an unusual hook-like structure."
Isn't it possible that Acrocanthosaurus was getting sick by eating corpses full of bacteria and other disgusting stuff?
Pretty much all predators are opportunistic scavengers, so that doesn't prove much. If anything, that's proof that it WASN'T a dedicated scavenger, as true scavengers often have adaptations so that they DON'T get sick.

Besides, Acrocanthosaurus wasn't that slow. And even if it was, it wasn't exactly hunting very fast prey.
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Ausar
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KaizerGoji
Mar 24 2015, 03:37 AM
Allosaurusatrox
Mar 23 2015, 06:14 AM
^ this is mentioned as a probible lifestyle for an acro in a book.

Yes. It's a book called "Field guide to dinosaurs". I think it mentions that Acrocanthosaurus was stinking and it was feeding with corpses because it was too sluggish. This kinda makes sense cause it had that huge sail or hump thing on its back which must have been extra weight. Also, read this from Wikipedia.
"The skull of the Acrocanthosaurus atokensis holotype shows light exostotic material on the squamosal. The neural spine of the eleventh vertebra was fractured and healed while the neural spine of its third tail vertebra had an unusual hook-like structure."
Isn't it possible that Acrocanthosaurus was getting sick by eating corpses full of bacteria and other disgusting stuff?
Those sound more like physical injuries than a disease. And it doesn't mean Acrocanthosaurus was generally "getting sick by eating corpses full of bacteria and other disgusting stuff", it just means that that particular Acrocanthosaurus specimen had injuries that don't even sound like they were caused by a disease.

Likewise, there's absolutely no way for us to know that it smelled so bad (with the implication that it would use it to usurp kills). Finally, as DarkGricer said, I really doubt Acrocanthosaurus was that slow.
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DinosaurFan95
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KaizerGoji
Mar 24 2015, 03:37 AM
Allosaurusatrox
Mar 23 2015, 06:14 AM
^ this is mentioned as a probible lifestyle for an acro in a book.

Yes. It's a book called "Field guide to dinosaurs". I think it mentions that Acrocanthosaurus was stinking and it was feeding with corpses because it was too sluggish. This kinda makes sense cause it had that huge sail or hump thing on its back which must have been extra weight. Also, read this from Wikipedia.
"The skull of the Acrocanthosaurus atokensis holotype shows light exostotic material on the squamosal. The neural spine of the eleventh vertebra was fractured and healed while the neural spine of its third tail vertebra had an unusual hook-like structure."
Isn't it possible that Acrocanthosaurus was getting sick by eating corpses full of bacteria and other disgusting stuff?
that was it, I couldn't think of the name.

the "sail" could have been a fat storage hump, used to hold acro over during times when corpses were scarce.

not every theropod was a fast paced hunter.

after all, vultures survive largely on corpses, and acro had access to large supplies of dead meat.
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Ausar
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Vultures can do so because they're efficient soaring fliers which not only is a low energy form of travel, but soaring allows for much more distance to be covered when searching for carrion (Ruxton & Houston, 2004). Acrocanthosaurus had no such luxury.
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DinosaurFan95
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unless it had a lower metabolic rate than another theropod of comparable size, or spent a large portion of its day sleeping, dinosaurs wernt on the move 24/7. or the fat hump could give it a "nitro boost" when it needed to beat competitors to a carcass, not to forget that acro was rather leggy for its size.
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