Acrocanthosaurus atokensis VS Tarbosaurus bataar

As I said, Acrocanthosaurus hunted sauropods, not other theropods, so why would he claw in the first place? it probably couldn't even lift its leg high enough to do so.

ok. then a full force ram would do.

oh. Then the swifter one wins. Just bite first and take down.

depends on who attacks first

why something as large, sturdy, and powerful as acrocanthosaurus wouldn't be able to kill a similarly sized theropod? i can almost say for certain that fights and squabbles would of occurred between the species. nothing about acrocanthosaurus physiology makes it incapable of fighting off other theropods. it wouldn't need to rely on foot claws or even its forearm claws when a massive 4 foot skull with large, serrated teeth would work wonders in causing severe blood loss and even shock. and given its predatory status, it would of been another acrocanthosaurus. and hunting sauropods proves nothing about acrocanthosaurus being impaired in fighting other animals. going by a few examples and by that logic, pantherinae, varinidae, crocodyliform, and Accipitridae must be ill equipt to fight other animals, despite the fact that they are known for killing animals larger then themselves and has given direct visual evidence that the can fair pretty well against animals of similar size or by fights within their own species.

not at all. both are well adapted predators, but we must remember that we are speaking in the context of speculation. i actually slightly favored acrocanthosaurus because it just impresses me more.its short, robust and stocky legs on that reasonably bulky body, the muscular ridge that stretches along its length it just built like a sturdy power house. all coupled it a deadly set of teeth. i honestly seeing acrocathosaurus fairing better then the the tarbosaurus. in my mind, at least, i see acrocanthosaurus winning the majority. speculation about a match this close would most likely be accessed on your own personal opinion with the propor logic to back it up

A couple things I want to chime in on:

1.) Tarbosaurus' skull. It actually doesn't seem to be as narrow as that oftenly-cited image suggests. I recall reading from Tyrannosaurus rex, the Tyrant King (written by Peter Larson and Kenneth Carpenter) that the skull/rostrum of the Tarbosaurus in that image's respective study was restored as too narrow (though it looks to me as if the pages I read it on aren't part of the preview now on Google Books; god damn it, unless someone has a full PDF of the book or something). Check out page 314 of the book to see how its skull compares (link).

2.) Kicking. I feel like I'm putting my credibility and the respect I seem to get on this forum on the line with what I'm about to say-especially after looking at the comments regarding the matter in this thread-so I really hope I don't sound like a hypocrite after what I said about claws here or a theropod fanatic with what I'm about to say but...here I go.

Oddly enough, there are apparently pathologies on some tyrannosaurid specimens attributed to pedal claws from conspecifics, including a Tyrannosaurus' face showing what have been interpreted as puncture marks from another Tyrannosaurus' foot claws (link). The manner in which they were delivered is sort of beyond me, although I would not rule out the possibility of the injured specimen being grounded during the attack or if said specimen's face was for some reason lower to the ground and was subsequently attacked. For whatever it's worth, the same source also shows a picture of "Jane"'s ilium with a pedal claw puncture.

Now yeah, theropods like Acrocanthosaurus and Tarbosaurus have huge heads with giant jaws and yeah, there's no real denying that they were the main killing weapons, but I don't think we can use this fact to dismiss any other potential offensive actions by these animals. It seems there is at least *some* evidence of agnostic foot claw use by predatory theropods and yeah, I know that balance is definitely worth a mention, but (here's where I put in my own conjecture, so...) what if a mega theropod were to grab its opponent with its jaws and/or forelimbs (depending on how useful the latter are and how adept at holding a grip the former will be) and then kick it? That should relieve the balance factor significantly, depending on how good of a grip the given dinosaur has. I'd imagine something like a tyrannosaurid, with its jaws as the clear and well-developed apprehending organ or a theropod with large, well-developed forelimbs would fare better in this regard while theropods with less developed arms and jaws made for slicing (i.e. poorly suited for gripping) will have a harder time.

Now, exactly how damaging will a kick be? Well, although they're not the "O MI GODZ!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" weapons people will often depict them as, the hindlimbs of ground dwelling birds (i.e. the closest thing we have to these animals today; e.g. ratites and phorusrhacids) can certainly cause some rather nasty damage.



And these theropods are operating on a far larger size scale than any of these birds, which would make a kick even more dangerous.

I'm sorry if this post looks shoddily written, but I hope you get the gist. And now, I shall hide behind a shield and await responses.