Ultraraptor revisited? (Re: extinction in China)

["Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Tim Donovan (KELL00BELL@aol.com) wrote:


> So perhaps Tyrannosaurus gradually annihilated and outlasted the
> Nanxiong herbivores, just as it may have done to earlier Nemegtian taxa 
> and,
> to a lesser extent, to the mid-Maastrichtian fauna of America.  Etc. [snip]
>        How could Tyrannosaurus have outlasted its dinosaur quarry long 
> enough
> to account for the higher occurrences of Macroolithus?  Perhaps one or more
> other taxa nested elsewhere, and the predator subsisted to an extent on
> pterosaur nests, turtles, etc.,

So, from his power base in North America, _Tyrannosaurus_ took over the 
world.  But, the Tyrant Lizard kept on eating all his subjects, so it proved 
to be a brief and bloody regime.  Then he subsisted on turtles and 
pterodactyl eggs for thousands of years.  Hmmm.

How did _Tyrannosaurus_ manage to bring about the extinction of smaller 
theropod predators... oh, let's say _Velociraptor_?  Or the giant sauropods, 
like _Alamosaurus_ or _Opisthocoelicaudia_?  A tyrannosaur would have to be 
an idiot to try and bring down a fully-grown titanosaur.

Your "Omnipredatory Tyrannosaurus" theory seems oddly reminiscent of a 
short-lived thread ("Ultraraptor and the killer genes") which surfaced a few 
years ago :

http://www.cmnh.org/fun/dinosaur-archive/1999Apr/msg00127.html

(still waiting for the book "Raptors Revealed"...)


Tim



------------------------------------------------------------

Timothy J. Williams

USDA/ARS Researcher
Agronomy Hall
Iowa State University
Ames IA 50014

Phone: 515 294 9233
Fax:   515 294 3163

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com