Re: Holes in ceratopsian frills, etc., etc.

[Jeff Poling <jpoling@dinosauria.com>]

At 12:23 PM 12/12/96 -0500, Darren Tanke wrote:

> d. neck protection. Some protection is better than none, and besides I
>don't feel that tyrannosaurus bothered ceratopsians that much anyway. This
>suggestion is borne out by the isolated examples of toothmarked bone we find
>in Dinosaur Provincial Park. Well over 85% of it comes from hadrosaurs.
>Ceratopsian toothmarked bone is found mostly in the monospecific bonebeds
>which represent mass mortality events and where the tyrannosaurs are
>scavenging carcasses. However, even here the toothmark evidence is not
>common. Tyrannosaurs ate hadrosaurs (as we call them here "the cattle of the
>Cretaceous"). Hadrosaurs did not have horns and thereby were less likely to
>inflict potentially fatal injuries on the predator. I believe tyrannosaurs
>were very aware of that fact and consciously pursued "easier" prey and/or
>scavenged.

   THANK YOU.  Finally, someone says (at least that I've noticed) what I've
been thinking for years.  Every time I see a Horner interview where he talks
about _T. rex_ not being a hunter because it couldn't attack a _Triceratops_
I end up screaming at the TV *why*?  *Why* would a _T. rex_ attack a big,
heavily armored trike when hundreds of thousands of hadrosaurs (as I call
them here "tyrannosaur snacks," and the giant herds of which Horner was
among those that discovered them for bleeps sake) were milling around just
waiting to be digested.

   I do recall, however, a trike fossil with a _T. rex_ bite in it.  If the
wound was inflicted during life, it's interesting to note the _T. rex_ was
biting it in the butt, far from those big horns.....

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