Re: T-Rex the scavenger (fwd)

[sean.kerns@sdrc.com (Snake)]

Forwarded message:
> 
> >Why would he need all those teeth simply to pick at roadkill on
> >the side of the Mesozoic freeway? Certainly, he could have got away
> >with much smaller teeth and jaws. Nobody's gonna pick on a vulture
> >that size...
> >Sean (disillusioned at the thought of a 40 foot vulture...)
> 
>   It has also been stated that rexxy could bolt down 1000 lbs of meat with 
> each
> gulp (the jaws are specially evolved with a hinge to open wide, like a 
> snake's).
> This doesn't make much sense for a scavenger, but taking 1000 lbs of meat out 
> of
> a prey with each bite makes real good sense for a predator.
> 
> Scott Horton
> Geophysicist/Computer Programmer

Yes, exactly. Another thing that didn't occur to me when I posted the
original message is the ammount of food that that a creature that size
requires.
Now, if T. Rex isn't killing its food, where is it all coming from?
It's hard to believe enough other dinos would drop dead of natural
causes to feed a beasty like that. Natural slection would certainly
work against a scavenger of that size, not _encourage_ it.
And if T. Rex were a scavenger, he should have flourished with all
the dino dead at the end of the Mesozoic - Cretaceous carrion
a-plenty....
> 


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|    Sean R. "Snake" Kerns              e-mail: sean.kerns@sdrc.com |  
|    DoD# 1052   '48 CJ-2A   '79 F-250 4x4 429   '93 750 Virago     |
|    Structural Dynamics Research Corporation    '79 AQHA           | 
|    These opinions aren't SDRC's...  They may not even be MINE...  |
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