Re: paleontolgist, dinosaur

[Stan Friesen <swf@ElSegundoCA.NCR.COM>]

 From: NCLARK <NCLARK@museum.gla.ac.uk>
 > I hope you don't mind me butting in here.  ... but I suspect a
 > large number of them were fairly specialised, especially the
 > herbivorous ones....

I would say it was a mixed bag.

T. rex strikes me as being a fairly general large carnivore,
perhaps specialized for large prey and ambush hunting. However,
the decrease in aridity across the K-T boundary would have *increased*
cover, and thus increased the availability of ambush sites. (Of
course the disappearance of all the large prey animals may have had
the opposite effect)

As to the herbivores, _Edmontosaurus_ was a fairly generalized
browsing herbivore, while _Triceratops_ may have been a specialized
browser of some sort. And _Thescelosaurus_ was certainly a fair
generalist.

Ornithomimids may have been generalist small vertebrate feeders.

swf@elsegundoca.ncr.com         sarima@ix.netcom.com

The peace of God be with you.