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Qilong — Ancient Achilles
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Published: 2010-04-19 08:39:37 +0000 UTC; Views: 2158; Favourites: 25; Downloads: 125
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Description
Before Achilles was Achilles, there was Achillebator.Born out of a series of mistakes, not the least of which is the spelling of its name (meant to evoke the mythic Myrmidon warrior Achilles and the Mongolian word for "hero," baatar), this is one of the largest, and most unusual dromaeosaur. Bearing strange vertebrae with additional foramina, a nearly propubic pelvis, and a robust maxilla indicating a heavy, high skull and not apparent maxillary fenestrae. Based on the problems with the original description and illustration, little else can be made of this taxon at the moment.
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Comments: 6
Does this mean you no longer think Achillobator's a chimera? Also, how do Achillobator's leg proportions compare to Utahraptor's? Many thanks in advance.
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I have no idea about the leg proportions thing, because so far a Utahraptor leg hasn't been described, much less one single leg from a single individual which can affirm its proportions.
The chimera thing is tricky, because a lot of the bones don't make sense ... but there's no real reason to doubt until further data comes up. The skeleton is just a reconstruction of the specimen as a whole. That's all.
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Wow a very unusual raptor indeed! This thing looks bulky, the kind of predator that would eat Protoceratops for breakfast (and I'm not talking about the babies)!
I wouldn't rule out some routine scavenging either for such a heavy-hipped raptor. Sort of like the hyena of the Dromaeosaur family.
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It's hard on this level of detail to consider hunting over scavenging; size in this animal points to it being one of the middle to largest theropods of its region, so it could very well be a macropredator. Scavenging seems to be one of those things that virtually all predators do, however, and very few animals seem adapted to scavenging, and most of that is behavior over anatomy (I say, "most").
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Good point, it could be a macropredator and probably was. Austroraptor is another likely example. Still, I have a hard time imagining how those oversized hips would help it in a fast predator role, they look pretty overbulked compared to other raptors... but if it specialized in hunting protoceratops or perhaps young sauropods or therizinosaurs, I'm sure it was easily fast enough to make short work of them.
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As far as I know, the large iliac blade provides longer anchoring sites to the femoral rotators, while also having a shallow moment arm from the acetabulum than if the same length were applied by increasing the length of ilia instead of their height; it also increases the size of the attachment site and provides more basic muscle to the femoral rotators. The pubis might actually be oriented posteriorly more than in here, or more anteriorly; I've not seen the specimen to speculate further on the quality of the articulation with the ilium.
What the above appears top indicate is that the strength of the femoral rotators increased, and their effective output increased without increasing the moment arm (which affects speed more than strength); i.e., it had really strong legs, but it wasn't for running. This, coupled with a short femur, remakrs on the concept of the ambush predator, which I was discussing in the Majungasaurus picture's comments. Unfortunately, the similarities end there. I would think that ability of the leg to act as a kicking device is more aided in these adaptations then they were in anything else, and it was suggested around after Achillobator was first described that it may have been a sauropod-killer. Not something I'd argue is unlikely, but currently unsubstantiated.
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