Re: Some Speculation

[binder@zk3.dec.com (vitam gustare)]

Larry Smith writes:

> T-rex doesn't _look_ like he needs help.  He's _huge_, he's
> got big teeth, big claws, big muscles - but let's face it,
> he's less than a fifth of the size and weight of even a
> medium-size saurian.

But remember that T. rex was a late Cretaceous character, and - if my
memory serves me - all the big sauropds were long gone by the time he
rolled in.  I think the situation would be more like T. rex facing a
ceratopsian, and it'd be a pretty even battle in terms of size.  The
ceratopsian's weaponry may have given the defender some advantage for
infighting, but if you look at the leg structures of the two genera,
you find that tyrannosaurids were made for a fair amount of heavy-duty
leg activity whereas the ceratopsians weren't.  (Compare a lion's leg
with that of a rhino - the two situations are parallel.)  My point here
is that T.rex may have chosen to hunt by walking/trotting its quarry
into exhaustion.

Only speculation.  :-)

-dick

||| Omnes hic mentes mihi sunt, non Collegio Armorum Digitalum. |||