Climbers, not slashers

What an exciting time for palaentologists! The speed with which established theories are overturned seems ever-accelerating:

In the Jurassic Park films, the velociraptor was a terrifying hunter that slashed open its victims with a giant, razor-sharp claw. The latest research has shown, however, that the dinosaur's formidable claw was, in fact, a prehistoric climbing crampon, which could also have represented a significant stage in the evolution of flight.

In an attempt to test theories that the animals disembowelled their prey, palaeontologists at the Natural History Museum in London and at Manchester University conducted simulations of a raptor attack using a replica claw on the end of a robotic arm and computer models.

Their findings have forced a complete revision of beliefs about how the pack-hunting carnivores attacked. They now think the hunters clambered up the flanks of large herbivores before clamping their jaws around their victims' throats.

The researchers also claim smaller relatives of the dromaeosaurid family, which includes the velociraptor, may have used their claws to climb trees and leap down on to their prey

Posted by David on December 10, 2006 10:17 AM