[ExI] IQ and beauty

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of rex
Subject: Re: [ExI] IQ and beauty

>>...John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> [2015-10-19 08:18]:...
 
>>...    ​Can you find one single expert who maintains that gargantuan antlers were
>    not a factor in extinction and if they were just a bit larger the Irish
>    Elk would still be with us today? ​

>...Would the existence of such a person sway your belief? Unsupported claims don't do much for me, as well as most others here, I'd venture. -rex
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This whole discussion has been most educational and interesting; I thank all the participants for the free education.  That's why I hang out with you guys these two fruitful decades.  

I am interested in paleontology; unfortunately I  suck.  It isn't my area of expertise, far from it.  But it occurred to me that the same kinds of reasoning we do in my field would be applicable to this.  In physics and even engineering, we think of a theory, then calculate through the consequences.  If yakkity yak is true, then we should see bla bla.  Then we set up a test looking for bla bla.

Ok paleo guys, check me on this.  Assume Irish elk chicks dug elk dudes who were stacked like a castle, and assume away the fighting other males scenario for this exercise.  We can easily envision our furry friend Mickey McAntler losing his balance at the critical moment (wouldn't we do something like that as well?) and crashing forward in some cases upon his hapless sweetheart, Minnie O'Horny.

This could result in the kinds of fatal injuries we should be able to find in the fossils: Mickey's huge antlers could break Minnie's spine, or conk her on the head leaving a visible divot in her skull, perhaps leave some kind of scar from tendons tearing away from bone, partially healing in the few days she would perhaps survive, resulting in no offspring for the O'Horny-McAntler family.

Do we know of any Irish elk fossils with broken spines, ripped tendon insertions or conked heads?

spike