From: gecko@zooid.guild.org (GECKO)
Newsgroups: talk.origins
Subject: Re: 7.5 ton Tedators & Falling!
Date: 23 Jul 92 04:10:42 GMT

  Mr. Ted writes more words, makes less sense: 
 
>there's always one idiot from the t.o crew who follows my posts with a 
>note that Guiness or somebody lists a modern elephant at 13 tons or 
>something like that, and that McGowen's statement should remove any 
>doubts regarding the Smithsonian's claim.  The 13 ton claim is bullshit. 
 
   What a thorough refutation!  If you say it's bullshit, hey, that's 
   all the confirmation I need.  Damn straight. 
 
 
>Land predators live by tackling and tumbling with prey. 
 
   Some do, some don't.  Slight overgeneralization, hmmmm? 
 
 
>McGowen 
>(page 126) gives a figure of 7.5 tons, roughly the same size as 
>the largest elephants, for the tyrannosaur.  If an elephant 
>cannot sustain falls at this size, and they cannot, then a 
>tyrannosaur at such a size could not either, and as a predator unable 
>to sustain falls, it could not have lived. 
 
   Incorrect.  Tyrannosaurs were made of sturdier stuff than elephants. 
   Certainly they could survive a fall better than an elephant.  Even 
   elephants can survive minor falls without permanent injury... 
 
 
>It ONLY lived due to the 
>heavily attenuated perception of gravity of the antediluvian world. 
 
   No.  No attenuated perception of gravity.  No "antediluvian" world. 
   No. 
 
 
>A tyrannosaur was basically a big carniverous kangaroo. 
 
   No, it wasn't actually.  Not even basically, I'm afraid.  They were 
   more like gigantic flightless predatory birds except with teeth, a 
   tail, and arms instead of vestigal wings.  And no feathers... 
   Carnivorous kangaroos once lived in prehistoric Australia, and they 
   weren't tyrannosaurs! ;-) 
 
 
>A look at its body should make its lifestyle clear enough;  it lived 
>By bounding after prey on two legs, kangaroo style, then clomping 
>those big teeth around a victim's throat, and then hanging on until 
>the victim died.  This necessarily involved some tumbling. 
 
   Aha HA HA HA HA HOO HA HA!  Ha.  Nope, not even close.  Tyrannosaurs 
   were not built like kangaroos - they ran, one foot in front of the 
   other, like an emu.  It is unlikely that they killed in this fashion 
   also; they did not have fangs like a lion to act as suffocating vice 
   -grips.  Instead they probably slashed and dodged, weakening prey via 
   injuries and loss of blood or possibly, perhaps on larger victims, 
   by infection of wounds (as with modern Komodo Dragons). 
 
 
>In real life, in our world, gravity, or at least the felt effect of it 
>being what it is now, rather than what it was then, this creatures life 
>would not last beyond the first bound.  Everything would come apart upon 
>landing and the poor creature would be in dire need of a chiropractor. 
 
   But then, this is not a problem since they didn't bound.  You are in 
   dire need of common sense after your bound into insensibility :^). 
 
 
>It's the same as picturing one of the 6 - 8 ton elephants landing 
>safely after a 30' leap.  In our world, it ain't gonna happen. 
 
   No, it's not.  Elephants are quite weak-limbed; their legs are like 
   pillars and do not absorb shocks very well.  Tyrannosaurs had avian 
   legs, designed for rapid movement and constructed to withstand 
   enormous stress.  Haven't I said this before?  Deja-vu! 
 
 
>Likewise, were a supersaur or ultrasaur to somehow be brought back to 
>our world through Alley-Oop's time machine, it would collapse in a heap 
>and die within a couple of minutes, crushed by its own weight, unable 
>even to breathe. 
 
   Now don't be such a big silly, Mr. Ted.  Sauropods were able to 
   suppourt their own bulk with bridge-like backbones and very thick 
   leg bones, and their footprints give a good indication of how much 
   they weighed - which was a LOT more than 8 tons! 
 
 
        BTW, anyone out there know just who Ted's target audience is? 
        Surely not regulars on this board.  Extremely naive persons 
        who accidentally stumble into this group?  Other creationists? 
        I can't guess.... 
 
 
                                      - GECKO 
 
 
 
gecko@zooid.guild.org 
Newsgroups: talk.origins