雷龙杀手：晚侏罗纪的剑齿虎——异特龙.PDFVIP

GAIA N 15, LlSBOAlLISBON, DEZEMBROIDECEMBER 1998, pp. 145-158 (ISSN: 0871 -5424) BRONTOSAUR KILLERS: LATE JURASSIC ALLOSAURIDS AS SABRE-TOOTH CAT ANALOGUES Robert T. BAKKER Wyo ming Oinamation Society . 1447 Sumac Ave ., BOULDER, COLORADO 80304 . USA ABSTRACT: According to Kowalevskian logic, sabre-tooth top predators evolve to harvest gi- ant, slow-moving prey. Late Jurassic sauropods, who dwarfed the largest contemporane- ous predators, may be ecological equivalents of proboscideans and ground sloths . Allosaurid theropods evolved unusual jaw joints that permitted exceptional gapes, special neck muscle attachments that increased the ventral-flexing leverage, reduced temporal muscles, and tiny teeth that could have functioned as mega-serrations for an upperjaw war club. This suite of modifications could have allowed allosaurids to attack prey very much bigger than themselves. If a student to-day asks, how shall I study palaeontology?, we can do no better than direct him to Kowalevsky H. F. OSBORN, 1910. INTRODUCTION can marsupial (thylacosmilids), and one subfamily of primitive placental creodont (machaeroidines). In KOWALEVSKIAN CO-EVOLUTION OF PREDATOR all four cases, the details ofjaw joint, occiput, canine AND PREY teeth and jaw muscle attachments were modified in nearly exactly the same way (TURNBULL, 1978; EM- OSBORN (1910) praised Vladimir Onufrievich ERSON RAD INSKY, 1980; TURNER ANTON, 1997). Kowalevsky for the invention of the theory-testin