Re: Theropod eating and attacking

["Matthew Troutman" <m_troutman@hotmail.com>]

>>> 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.
 Yes, owl pellets do fossilize but the difference between them and 
dinosaur coprolites is great. Coprolites contain a lot of "fecal" spacew 
that is unmistakeably "fecal." Owl pellets are near hollow structures 
that are filled with bones of rodents. there is no record of anything in 
the Mesozoic looking like that. 
 And owl pellets show up in the early Eocene.


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com