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The neural spines of Acrocanthosaurus; Why did it have them?
Topic Started: Jul 1 2014, 07:17 AM (2,218 Views)
Thalassophoneus
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Pelagic Killer
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What were some probable uses of the tall neural spines of Acrocanthosaurus? Write your opinions here.
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Ausar
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Xi-miqa-can! Xi-miqa-can! Xi-miqa-can!
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"unless it had a lower metabolic rate than another theropod of comparable size"
Which needs to be proven.

"or spent a large portion of its day sleeping"
Don't lions do the same? And they're certainly not obligate scavengers.

"dinosaurs wernt [sic] on the move 24/7"
Except I never insinuated they were and even then I don't see how this will suffice to allow it to be an obligate scavenger.

"or the fat hump could give it a "nitro boost" when it needed to beat competitors to a carcass"
Not convinced it'd be any alternative to soaring, assuming the hump was one of fat in the first place.

"not to forget that acro was rather leggy for its size."
Which if anything, could point to it more or less pursuing prey if it needed to.
Edited by Ausar, Mar 24 2015, 08:58 AM.
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Agentjaguar
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Herbivore
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Like stegosaurus, and spinosaurus...I believe the spines were for thermoregulation.
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Thalassophoneus
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Is there any chance males had colorful sail to atract females?
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DinosaurFan95
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Omnivore
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Not every odd body structure is for sex, as some paleontologists like to claim.
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theropod
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palaeontology, open source and survival enthusiast
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Acrocanthosaurus actually wasn’t overly leggy for its size, it’s shorter legged than other carcharodontosaurs and its leg musculature is proportionately smaller than in Allosaurus, at least following one modeling attempt (Bates et al. 2012). It’s not built for running–likewise, it would be hard to imagine any 5t+ theropod as a pursuit predator.

Exostoses and bone breaks are not the result of infectious disease. Scavengers also don’t get ill from eating carrion, otherwise they wouldn’t eat it. Most carnivore’s intestinal tracts are adapted to deal with large amounts of raw meat and the infections it can contain. Even if they did, the bones would be the last place for such an illness to manifest, and I’ve got no clue how it could lead to fractures and exostoses.

These pathologies are the result of direct application of force. That means, either physical trauma, or a stress fracture. the latter would actually prove that it was a muscle attachment site.

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