Re: VENOMOUS & SEPTIC BITES

[Michael Teuton <tons@ccs.logicsouth.com>]

Well said as usual.  I hope no one got the idea I supported septic bites as an
effective method of defense or offense in dinosaurs.

All bites, lacerations, scrapes, etc have the ability to become infected.  If 
the
infection is systemic then the animal can die.  However, I agree with you that
therapods likely did not run around spitting or injecting venom in animals or
biting them and following them around for days waiting on them to die.

Any animal lucky enough to escape attack, but unfortunate enough to become
systemically infected from bites or lacerations would have likely been eaten by
another animal if at all.

Have viruses ever been found in dino bone/tissue?

Michael Teuton

darren.naish@port.ac.uk wrote:

> Special thanks to Darren Tanke for his highly informative email on
> septic bites in theropods etc. As Darren emphasises, I think we
> should all be careful to distinguish between venomous bites and
> septic bites. <large friendly snip>