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Re: For you T. Rex addicts out there! - Part 2]

This has been the most crucial question for me in regards to the whole T. rex scavenger vs predator debate. If T. rex was not a top predator of its time, then *what* was? Has any carnivorous dinosaur been unearthed from the late Cretaceous N. America that could vie for the title of top predator in its ecosystem other than T. rex? Furthermore, if it will ever be determined that T. rex was indeed primarily a scavenger, why would it be necessary to evolve such an enormous one when modern analogues in the same niche are comparatively smaller in size (ex. jackals, vultures)?

James

Mike Taylor wrote:

Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2003 16:01:01 +0000
From: Garrison Hilliard <garrison@efn.org>

It is set against the Horner vision: a red-faced T. rex tucking into
a triceratops that has obviously been killed by another beast.



... and what killed the _Triceratops_?  Food poisoning?  Lightning
bolts?  Very small bolides?  Because it certainly wasn't 50kg dromies.

Seriously: are there _any_ serious contenders for killing big
ceratopsians and hadrosaurs apart from _T. rex_?

This just won't lie down and go away, will it?

_/|_     _______________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor  <mike@indexdata.com>  http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\  "You couldn't stamp 'PROPERTY OF THE ZOO' on a great
         big lion!" / "They do them when they're still small." /
         "What happens when they moult?" / "Lions don't moult." /
         "Ah, but penguins do!  There, I've run rings around you
         logically!" -- Monty Python's Flying Circus.

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