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Re: Climbing dromaeosaurs?
Betty wrote:
<point one)
jaguars and gorillas both live in rainforests where food is commonly
found in trees-thus a reason to climb trees in the first place.
point two)
dromosaurs are usually depicted in drylands, canyons, arroyos,
deserts, etc. What rainforests would that be? What habitat did they
live in where so much of the food chain was EXCLUSIVELY in trees?>
To my knowledge, the Judith River Formation, with *Dromaeosaurus*,
was a marshy deltaic environment with an appearance to the
Mississippi's delta and surrounds. The Hell Creek, Cedar Mountain (?),
and Cloverly were, as far as I've read, far from modern Montana, and
may have resembled Olympic National Forest, in Washington State (USA),
a neotropical rain forest. Therefore, such environments as bred
dromaeosaurs (except the Djadochta and Barun Goyot) were quite wet and
woody, but there was probably an overabundance of confiers with
strait, long trunks. Small trees then, heavy brush, etc., may have
been the preferred "nests" or occasional hunting ground as opposed to
floor level housing and open terrain, quite dangerous places to be.
And of course, all these "climbing" adaptations could be just as good
for rocks---dromaeosaurs may have lived in the hills and gorges...
<point three)
Why would a large silly animal want to be in a tree in the first
place? If for predator avoidance that would mean the tree would have
to be larger than the largest predator likely to eat a jaguar-sized
animal (that would be a dang big tree-to avoid T rexes perhaps). If to
hunt for food either the jaguar-sized creature would need to be
omnivourous (as a gorilla is) to obtain the greatest amount of
calories for amount of calories spent in getting into the tree -or-
would need to hunt and kill large enough prey to return the high
amount of calories spent in getting into and hunting in trees. On this
last, WHAT is known that was large enough to have a predator invest
it's time in hunting in trees? Mammals were kinda small bites at the
time. Pterosaurs perhaps? Hmm possibly.>
Possibly. See the TLC (?) show where a small bunch of Cape buffalo
put a lioness into a tree? Decidedly, there were more than one
buffalo, and you step very lightly around these beasts, and just one
lioness, but the principle applies: of the tenontosaurs, iguanodonts,
ceratopsians, and hadrosaurs of their time that could conceivably pose
a threat to the dromie, wouldn't you like a sure-fire way of getting
out of the way?
I like the pterosaurs idea.
==
Jaime A. Headden
Qilong, the website, at:
http://members.tripod.com/~Qilong/qilong.html
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All comments and criticisms are welcome!
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