Mujangasaurus arms

For one thing it's spelled Majungasaurus. It's also been called Majungathoulus. I prefer the latter. Either way, I don't think they were used for much. Like T-rex, Majungatholus probably relied on it's jaws and teeth. They may have helped grip a mate while mating, but that's all I can think of. The T-rex of the East: Majungatholus/Majungasaurus- 25 ft long, 1.5 tons Male [img]http://www.history.com/minisites/jurassic-fight-club/dinopedia/images/majungatholus-male.png[/img] Female [img]http://www.history.com/minisites/jurassic-fight-club/dinopedia/images/majungatholus-female.png[/img]

Oops! I spelled the name wrong. You bring up a good point, and mating was probably a use, but if Mujungasaurus had these pint sized arms, what would make them evovle this way?

I say this, because at some point they had to be a decent length, and would be useful for killing prey.

Perhaps they were losing their arms. If they did not die out, maybe they would have been gone within 10 or so million years. I put a Majungatholus page on my website everythingdinosaurs.weebly.com in case you wanna check it out.

Perhaps they were losing their arms. If they did not die out, maybe they would have been gone within 10 or so million years. I put a Majungatholus page on my website everythingdinosaurs.weebly.com in case you wanna check it out.

The abelisaurs overall had short arms. [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Abelisaurus_comahuensis_jmallon.jpg/220px-Abelisaurus_comahuensis_jmallon.jpg[/img]

I'll check it out! Thanks for relying to my conversation by the way. And what you say is true, but the question still stands, why were they losing their arms? Perhaps they were an inconvinience due to their environment?

That's true, they were abeliasaurs, and the family overall was notorious for being short armed.

It usually comes back to an animals environment when it comes to why they had a feature or lacked a feature.

*abelisaurs

They probably would've been an advantage in the cramped forested environments

They probably would've been an advantage in the cramped forested environments

Yeah, Majungatholus was a strange dinosaur. I think it was even weirder than it's cousins. Ugly skull, short arms, and cannibalistic nature. The ugly profile may be because of mutation. When you have a small pocket of animals in an isolated area, you're gonna get inbreeding. Mutation is often a side-effect of inbreeding. Madagascar is not nearly as big as mainland Africa and odds are Majungatholus became so strange because of inbreeding and then mutation.

If you are really interested in Majungatholus, then you should check out Jurassic Fight Club. I highly recommend the series. The first episode was about Majungatholus.

Okay not to sound mean but when I saw this post had 14 comments I was a little surprised that 14 people wanted to talk about Majungasaurus's arms. Then I saw they were all from 2 people.... However, this interests me and I will contribute. Majungasaurus's arms were probably used for mating, like Rex Fan said, and I would also like to say that Carnotaurus also had very tiny arms. In a few million years they probably would have evolved almost completely away, like a green anaconda's "arms". They have tiny claws for mating.

Don't worry, you're not bein mean. I agree with ya. Good analogy with the anaconda.

To reply to Rex fan- I love Jurassic fight club, and have the season on DVD. I also liked the point you brought up about inbreeding. Madascar is a small area with a limited population, and mutation can contribution to the eww factor of this dinosaur, and possibly the oddly disporpotionate arms. And to reply to the long title guy-That's because Carnotaurus was an abelisaur, and that particular dinosaur family had remarkably short arms. I also believe that that conclusion that they were mating tools is fairly definite. I also enjoyed Seeing your anaconda analogy, And you're right, the arms probably would have evolved away in a few more years. Thanks guys!