Re: Resources, energetics and dinosaur maximal size

[Augusto Haro <augustoharo@gmail.com>]

Yes, it seems McNab does not consider the possibility of greater
availability of food in some epochs of the Mesozoic.

2009/7/27 David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>:

> Serrated teeth make a lot of difference, it seems to me. A pack of wolves
> killing a bison, as seen on TV, takes several hours. It involves the wolves
> biting into the place with the thinnest skin and trying to tear it into
> stripes, on the living animal, with their canines which are circular in
> cross-section (and with all their body weight). These pathetic attempts go
> on till the bison is weakened enough to fall to the ground... A murder of
> coelophysids, chirping annoyingly like in WWD, would have turned the same
> bison into a noodle sieve within minutes by _just taking bites out of it_. I
> think splatter does matter.

May be you are right, but I do not see too much the coelophysoids
eating as piranhas. In any case, I do not much see serrated teeth
helping Varanus komodoensis to tear apart pieces of prey from a
carcass much faster than a wolf (although perhaps it can be said this
is explained because the monitor is more sluggish).