|
|
Article: Allosaurus as a Jurassic headbanger.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- November 11, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Being referred to as thickheaded isn't exactly a compliment. Depending on your lifestyle, however, you just might need a skull that can occasionally take a good smack.
Consider a carnivorous dinosaur such as Allosaurus fragilis attacking and feeding on its prey. New research shows that the predator's skull can resist stress many times higher than that expected merely from the dinosaur's chewing on its victims. The finding provides insight into Allosaurus' method of subduing its prey, says Emily J. Rayfield, a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge in England, who performed the analysis.
To study the skull and jaw of Allosaurus, Rayfield took ...