The flaws of "small game hunting raptors"

[David Hill <daveyohill@earthlink.net>]

Dear Dinolist-reader

I've taken the liberty to show you why the "small-game hunting Deinonychus"
is incorrect.
        Point#1: Deinonychus lived 120,000,000 years ago through
90,000,000.  through that vast period, deinonychus has remained unchanged
except for slight variations in the skull.  This means that deinonychus's
claw must have had a function.  Would it be worth deinonychus's effort to
jump on a small animal, if it could have easily just grabbed it with it's
head or hands?  To pounce on such a small target would have taken allot of
precision and precalculation, but Larry thinks that deinonychus was to dumb
to hit a tenontosaur let alone a small mammal.

        Point#2 When you see small game-hunting dinos, you usually
associate them with a long neck and a snout kink with semi forward pointing
teeth.  The teeth in front of the snout-kink would have proven very useful
for catching small prey.  The teeth combined with the long powerful neck
would have been a very efficient weapon for a hungry predator.  Deinonychus
had a relatively short neck and teeth that were all backward pointing, they
were clearly ment for holding and not for lightning-fast strikes.

        Point#3 Coelophysis was a very flexible hunter.  It was adapted for
making those quick pivots and U-turns.  With all of these abilities to aid
it's hunt, the mammal's scattering technique would have been matched by the
theropods ability to turn and rush.  Deinonychus was a fast runner and was
well adapted for those long stretches while chasing a not so agile prey.
Deinonychus would have had a hard time making those quick turns at such a
speed, and it's stiff tail would have made it even harder to turn in a
dense forest where a mammal would've sought refuge.  Deinonychus was
superbly equipped for running in those wide-open areas and due to it's
tail, it would have had trouble weaving through the trees.  Coelophysis is
a model small-game hunter, with it's agility combined with it's
long-distance propelling neck and it's forward striking teeth, ceolophysis
was the mammal killer.  Deinonychus was mainly adapted for killing prey
that was larger 130lbs.  It would have grabbed it's prey with it's hands
while squeezing with it's jaws and repeatedly slashing it's prey with that
nasty toe-claw.  It's evident that raptors had some sort of social
structure, so the effort would have proven more useful if the prey was
swarmed.  The deinonychus would have kept attacking in till the tenonto was
to week to defend itself or to tired to thrash.

your faithful dinolister, Noel Hill.

P.S. Larry, I realy would like to hear what you have to say about my last post.

Davey O'

"I've been pushed to the brink of the precipice and dared not to blink"
Mark Heard