Re: BBC2 Horizon and South American Dinos

[christopher robert noto <crnoto@midway.uchicago.edu>]

Has there been any kind of study on modern pack hunting animals, comparing
their mass with that of their prey?  Perhaps there is a certain threshhold
or minimum value that must be met by the mass of the carnivore before it
can be a successful pack hunter, because, like you said, we don't see
foxes hunting something as large as elk in packs.  I'm sure the values
would vary depending on the type (degree?) of pack hunting exhibited.
But I think it would make an interesting study.

Chris

On Fri, 24 Nov 2000, Larry Dunn wrote:

> --- jocelyn <jocelyn.m.hasskamp@stud.man.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> > Mainly I wasn't
> > convinced by 
> > the sceptics who thought that Giganotosaurus
> > couldnot have 
> > shown 'pack hunting' characteristics in order to
> > kill their quarry.  
> 
> Well, why do you assume that _Giganotosaurus_ hunted
> _Argentinosaurus_?  Wasn't there anything else for
> _Giganotosaurus_ to eat, other than (arguably) the
> largest animal ever to walk the earth?
> 
> > Surely its a characteristic that when faced with the
> > dilemma of how 
> > to successfully hunt an animal much larger than
> > yourself some sort 
> > of 'rudementary' and i stress that form of
> > cooperative hunting 
> > behaviour would evolve (re: hyena example).  
> 
> If something "makes sense" to humans, it doesn't
> necessarily follow that animals will "get it" and do
> so.
> 
> And does it "make sense" in the first place?  What
> makes more sense -- for foxes to go out and sensibly
> hunt animals smaller than themselves, or for a "pack"
> of ambitious foxes to hunt elk?  There's a good chance
> that the fox pack will lose one or more of their
> number, right?  The object of the game is to survive,
> not to go for the gusto.
> 
> The pack hunting red herring just won't swim away,
> will it?  Maybe if we all wish hard enough that
> dinosaurs were just analogies of the large predators
> we know and love, they will become so ....
> 
> =====
> Larry
> 
> "Catapultam habeo. Nisi Pecuniam omnen mihi dabis ad capul tuum saxum immane 
> mittam."
> 
> http://members.tripod.com/~megalania/index.html
> 
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