Re: Trexie and whales..?!

[Robert.J.Meyerson@uwrf.edu (Rob Meyerson)]

>does anyone
>have any idea what sort of natural mortality rate Triceratops (and
>duckbills) might have had, and how much meat this might have provided for
>a T.rex population?

Ultimately, this may be irrelevent.  The fact is that all ecosystems have a=
 top predator; whether its lions on the serengeti, or wolves in northern=
 Minnesota.  Now I do think that its good to examine our ideas about T. rex,=
 and look at whether it really was a predator; but our follow up question=
 must be: If T. rex was not the top predator, then who was?  To my=
 knowledge, there is no information of the possible existence of another=
 large theropod.
        There have also been numerous studies involving the interaction of=
 moose and wolves.  These studies have concluded that in order for the herd=
 to be stable genetically, and in numbers of individuals, there must be some=
 kind of active predation.
        Now I know that this doesn't answer all the questions about the late=
 Cretaceous ecosystem, but I do think that these are things to keep in mind.=
  Besides, just because we don't think something makes sense (like T. rex=
 predation), doesn't mean that it couldn't happen.

Rob

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