RE; Some speculation

[Tim Madden <TMADDEN@medicode.mhs.compuserve.com>]

Larry Smith writes:

> We have little or no direct evidence for pack hunting in
> carnivorous dinosaurs.  We presume the various raptors
> probably were, and I've seen one or two mentions that
> allosaurus might have been, but rarely more than that.
> I grew up with the t-rex lonely-and-ferocious-hunter
> paradigm.
>
> But I can't find too many instances of _non_pack hunters
> amongst the living carnivours.

Well, off the top of my head; tigers, bears (as you mentioned),
panthers, coyotes, leopards, alligators, most if not all snakes,
etc., hunt alone or in pairs.

> So, if these speculations are close to the mark at all, then pack
> hunting predators we find would have injuries - recent, perhaps
> the cause of death, like the first deinonychus whose claws were
> still imbedded in a protoceratops, if I recall correctly, or
> healed or partially healed, like Sue.  Killed while hunting would
> be the normal way for a predator pack dinosaur to check out.  These
> two examples happen to be the only sites I have heard about in
> enough detail to know if they support this view or not, and both of
> them seem to.  Are there others?  Is such collateral damage "normal"
> in certain predatory dinosaur finds?  And, more importantly for
> testability, is such collateral damage _not_ the norm in certain
> other species, such as allosaurus?  It would be very instructive
> if most t-rex skeletons show damage and most allosaurs do not, for
> example.  Of course, we might lack enough skeletons to decide either
> way.

>From my understanding, there are about a dozen Tyrannosaurid
skeletons, mostly fragments. So there probably isn't enough
evidence to draw any conclusions. But the idea is interesting
(and frightening to imagine).

Tim
tjmadden@xmission.com
tmadden@medicode.mhs.compuserve.com