I know that in years past, it has often been suggested that predatory maniraptoran dinosaurs (mainly troodontids and dromaeosaurids) used their forelimbs to catch food. Indeed, Ostrom originally suggested that flapping behavior began as an extrapolation of the prey catching stroke. However, now that we know more about the anatomy of these predatory dinosaurs, specifically that many forms had large secondary and primary feathers on their arms and were incapable of pronating their hands, I am having a hard time seeing how the forelimbs could have been of any use in predatory behavior. There doesn't seem to be any way that they could have been rotated to grab prey, nor slash at conspecifics or larger prey items. Yet there has to have been some function for having flexible clawed digits in maniraptorans, as nearly all maniraptorans have well-developed hands, and indeed many early birds still had well-developed digits.
Hi - have you seen Phil Senter's papers on this very topic? Even with a fully feathered, pronated hand, it seems that dromaeosaurids and others could bring the hands together to clutch prey.
I remember a poster at the SVP meeting in Berlin this year (2014) about the grasping capabilities of a non-maniraptoran coelurosaur:
SULLIVAN, Yu, Xu 2014, MANUAL FLEXIBILITY AND GRASPING ABILITY IN THE BASAL TYRANNOSAUROID DINOSAUR GUANLONG WUCAII. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Program and Abstracts, 2014, page 237
Perhaps thinking about the hands of the sistergroup to Maniraptora within the Coelurosauria offers some interesting ideas.
edit: removed a typo
Russell, I have researched this question as well & I have been going to the root of the problem: could bipedal dinosaurs (or any nontherian) actively pronate/supinate their forearm bones? I hope my latest publication (attached) can help you, which focuses on the proximal radioulnar joint. Future work will focus on the antebrachiocarpal area.
Article An examination of forearm bone mobility in Alligator mississ...
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Zoology
- Ornithology