T.rex was a predator.

[ashmidt@flash.net (Ann Schmidt)]

Hello everyone I've thought about it for some time and I think we can
figure out whether T.rex was a scavenger or a predator.  Here are all of
Jack Horners ideas about T.rex being a scavenger that I have heard and my
views toward them.
1. T.rex wasn't fast(this hasn't been proven)A predator does not
nessasarily need to be fast to be an effective hunter a Komodo dragon can
only run ten miles and it catches Buffalo twice its size. Perhaps T.rex
hunted similarly.
2. T.rex was big to chase away other predators from their kills.  It is
true that large predators often chase away smaller hunters from their kills
but they do not live on this(the sperm whale one of the biggest animals in
the world is an active pradator.)
3. T.rex was designed to be a bone crusher, thus a scavenger.  Firstly let
it be known that Vultures are not exactly bone crushers.  Secondly one of
the few bone crushing animals,the Hyena, is also one of the most efficent
predators in the world.
4. T.rex is related to birds and the biggest birds are scavengers.  Firstly
the biggest predatory birds(Albatrosses) and the biggest scavenging
birds(Vultures) are about the same size.  Secondly and perhaps most
surprisingly most vultures have been known to take live prey, the bearded
vulture pickts up tortoises and drops them from a great height and the
Lappet faced vulture has been known to kill hares and young antilope with
its giant beak.
5. Their were enuf dinosaurs dying in the herds for T.rex to live off of.
I find this an impossiblity if you look at the serengety today their are
millions of prey animals yet the Lions and hyenas and leopards still have
to work very hard to get enuf to eat.  For T.rex to survive on dead
carcasses alone would have been impossible unless it could fly.
6.  T.rex had short front limbs.  This is perhaps the most popular theory
of all and also the silliest, If you look at modern day animals very few of
them(cats are an exception) depend on their hands for killing prey at all.
You don't often see a pack of killer whales killing a blue whale with their
flippers! or a pack of wild dogs pulling down a zebra with there paws! no!
they depend on jaw power(and T.rex was well equiped in this regard)looking
for an bipedal counterpart? Consider the secretary bird, it doesn't kill
Poisoness snakes and other animals with Its wings now does it? no it uses
its feet, T.rex would have simply used its head.
7. T.rex had a good sense of smell so it could track down dead bodies.
Another silly one.  The turkey vulture is one of the few scavengers with a
good sense of smell most vultures depend on their eyes and sense Jack
thinks T.rex had bad eyesight this idea doesn't work.  Don't wolves
,sharks,snakes and bears all have good senses of smell.
8. T.rex had bad eyesight(this hasn't been proven ether) many predators
don't depend on their eyes for hunting. Tho owls have good eyesight as do
bats they mostly depend on hearing when there is no light at all.  T.rex as
I recall had ears designed to pick up low sounds like those made by
duckbills.  Why would it have this if it wasn't going to hunt them?
and so all in all I think T.rex was a predator.
Jonathan schmidt