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RE: Microraptor also ate fish



>None of what you said makes predation of the fish more parsimonious.  To be 
>so, it would have to explain the data better than scavenging, and you admit in 
>the last paragraph scavenging fish requires no special morphology for a 
>theropod.  So hunting fits its morphology well, and scavenging fits its 
>morphology well. <

If an animal has the tools to catch live fish, predation is a much reliable 
method of obtaining a given quantity of food than scavenging, special 
conditions like anoxic events excepted.

It follows that when an animal which clearly has the tools for predation is 
found with prey-appropriate organisms in it's gut, predation is parsimonious - 
predation being ecologically more viable.