Re: Theropod eating and attacking

[jamolnar@juno.com]

On Sun, 24 Aug 1997 08:15:14 -0700 Jonathon Woolf <jwoolf@erinet.com>
writes:
>jamolnar@juno.com wrote:
>> 
>> Birds of prey and owls will regurgitate undigestible parts of their 
>prey
>> in pellets.  Some are capable of digesting small bones.  Fish-eating
>> birds usually have strong stomach acids and gizzards and digest fish
>> bones, but a few also regurgitate pellets.  Theropods may have done
>> either.  I wonder how one could tell from fossils which method they 
>were
>> using?
>
>I have a vague impression from somewhere that fossilized owl pellets
>have been found.  I've never heard of "dinosaur pellets," though. 
>Coprolites, yes, but not pellets.

Owl pellets fossilize? Really? Cool!  If so, that's a good point.  But
maybe dino pellets were not recognized as pellets and mistaken for
coprolites?  Or perhaps there is a preservational bias against dinosaur
pellets?

Judy Molnar
Education Associate, Virginia Living Museum
vlmed@juno.com
jamolnar@juno.com
All questions are valid; all answers are tentative.