Re: Predation categories (per...

[Flyinggoat@aol.com]

>Tyrannosaurids would be in a good position to bully any other >theropod away
from a corpse (dromaeosaurids arguably may be >more deadly pound for pound,
but tyrannosaurids had a LOT more >pounds...)

    I've recently begun speculating on whether T Rex was more likely to
harass the juveniles of it's own species. 
    My supposition was that: T Rex juveniles (siblings) were pack hunters
till they reached a certain size (and probably damn good pack hunters, too),
then when the kill would not have enough to feed a group of larger
individuals, they would seperate as a pack and become individual hunters (in
the traditonal view of T Rex), with (probably) the largest individual keeping
the original territory and the others being chased off to find their own.
    This leads to other interesting speculation about how the T Rex grouping
may have been matriarchal, with the large individual being female laying a
brood and then leaving the brood to survive as pack hunters (being smaller
and more energy efficient they would be more capable of bringing down larger
and more numerous prey) and then the large individual (MOM) while keeping
tabs on her territory, following and harassing her own progeny off of kills
they had made, like lions following hyeanas to chase them off of a kill, just
so she wouldn't have to expend more energy in hunting for herself.  
    This leads to even more speculation on behavior and pecking order within
the pack, with it also being run by the largest individual (little mom) as
alpha hunter, and thus the cycle would lead to large single females
reproducing in an area, her progeny surviving and hunting as a group in the
same area, the large single female bullying them off of kills to feed
herself,(EITHER) her pack-progeny growing up and becomeing too large for the
territory to support so many T Rexs in a given area and so Mom runs everbody
off of her territory when they get too big (where they can also go looking
for mates of their own), (OR) the pack gets too big to support itself and
everybody seperates to go loking for their own territory (and mates of their
own), (OR MAYBE EVEN) little mom takes on big mom for the territory-rights,
and the winner chases everybody off.  This cycle would allow the adult and
teen males to be wanderers, generally, and therefore less likely to set up
territory on their own, however I believe a large male could set himself up
in a similar situation.  I am assuming, however, that females would be bigger
than males and more likely to win an intimidation display with another T Rex.
    Pure speculation, I know. 

Betty Cunningham(Flyinggoat@aol.com)