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Re: Microraptor also ate fish



Seagulls catch live fish

http://www.arkive.org/herring-gull/larus-argentatus/image-A19313.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK32QnWt930

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THn9_R5Q72c

So do crows

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_bq_vf1Sn4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyqdKhXWY3s




Jason Brougham
Senior Principal Preparator
American Museum of Natural History
jaseb@amnh.org
(212) 496 3544





On 4/23/13 11:09 AM, "don ohmes" <d_ohmes@yahoo.com> wrote:

>
>Tue, Apr 23, 2013 4:18 AM EDT Mickey Mortimer wrote:
>
>>>Don Ohmes wrote-
>>> 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.<<
>
>>Finally, we actually a possible argument for parsimony besides Xing et
>>al.'s "short spoilage time".  Now, do we actually know that living
>>animals capable of catching fish eat more fish they caught themselves
>>than fish they scavenged?  I think this isn't so clear cut.  A
>>specialized fishing animal like a skimmer, sure.  A more generalist
>>aquatic predator like a heron, probably.  But what about something even
>>more generalist like a gull?  Do gulls kill more fish than they
>>scavenge?  I wouldn't feel confident saying yes.  Is there literature
>>out there on this?<
>
>Do gulls actually fish, beyond the classic bait ball?
>
>In any case, I do not believe that I could look at the skeleton of a gull
>and say "look, predatory tools!"
>
>A beak for processing meat, but no _catching_ equipment...
>
>>Regarding anoxic events, aren't they supposed to be very common in the
>>Jehol habitat, and indeed the very reason specimens are preserved so
>>well and so many aerial taxa are preserved?  And if that's true, surely
>>it would influence any calculation for fish scavenging being
>>parsimonious.<
>                         
>Still, they are special events - otherwise there would be nothing to
>scavenge. Or catch.
>