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THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Eric Snively A ... - Ohio University

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allowed to stretch slightly under the bending loads, stresses on the bone will<br />

decrease.<br />

In addition, elastic deformation and remil of tendons would decrease the rate<br />

of strain on the bone; unlike tendons and ligaments, bone is less brittle under<br />

longer periods of loading. A longer collective loading period on tyrannosaurid<br />

hind limb elements, including soft and hard tissues, may have allowed their<br />

bones to withstand torque imposed by lower duty factors than nomially expected<br />

for animals of their great sire.<br />

While these relationships hold for mammals over wide range of body mass<br />

(Pollock 1991), benefits of elastic storage have yet to be quantified in<br />

tyrannosaurids. Based on regression equations from quadrupedal mammals<br />

(Pollock 1991 ),<br />

(1 1) ~=0.14m'.~~ U=elastic strain energy storage, m=body mass,<br />

the M. gastrocnemius tendon in G. librafus would be expected to store and<br />

release at least 910 Joules.<br />

Because tendons of M. flexor digitonim longus also span the mesotarsal joint,<br />

and because G.libratus is a biped, the maximum capacity for elastic energy<br />

storage of al1 tendons around the joint was almost certainly higher. The cross<br />

section of these tendons in ostriches is 1.95 times that predided for an antelope<br />

carrying the same amount of mass on its back legs (Alexander et al. 1979), and<br />

the tendons are much longer than those of ungulates. If the same were true for<br />

G. libratus versus a quadrupedal mammal of its mass, its mesotarsal tendons<br />

would potentially be quite efficient at elasüc starage. The tendons thus may have

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