Re: Meat eating sauropods

[psparks@CERF.NET (paul sparks)]

If there was a bite mark, it would seem much more likely (than anything else
that I have heard here) is that the sauropod had been attacked, wounded, and
in its last bit of life reached over and tried to bite the theropod that was
(by then) eating it.

I don like the alligators and the snakes.  With the lack of grace in current
baseball, maybe we could start up some alligator/snake ball. :)



>>   There was a mention on either s.b.p or the dino-list about a Bakkerian
>>claim of sauropods grabbing theropods with their mouths and tossing them
>>around.  It was only an off-hand comment, no real detail, but it piqued my
>>interest.
>
>"This seems unlikely to me for one simple reason: leverage."
>
>I thought of that,  too;  also that sauropods did not generally have large
>enough mouths or teeth to grab and shake a big predator.  More likely,  I
>think,  a sauropod might have jabbed at an attacker,  using his/her head to
>deliver nasty butts (and using the butt,  i.e. the tail,  to whack the
>attacker,  too,  if possible.)  But head-butts would have been a defense of
>last resort,  since sauropod heads were not reinforced with extra bone,  or
>spiked.  The defense of first resort would have been bulk--and maybe
>stomping.  --Merritt Clifton,  editor,  ANIMAL PEOPLE.
>
>
paul w. sparks  Psparks@cerfnet.com
"over the heather the wet wind blows
I've lice in my tunic and a cold in my nose."
anon