Re: Bitten Ornithopod on This Side Of Hell?

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

Tim Donovan wrote:
> 
> I don't know if there was such a niche, since there was also a size gap
> between the large and small herbivores. 

Perhaps the subadults of large herbivores filled these niches too?

> I (and also P. Currie) suggest
> tyrannosaurs of all ages stayed with the pack and 6-9m tyrannosaurs began to
> participate in pack hunting, perhaps by leading in pursuit of fleeing prey,
> if they were exceptionally gracile and fast, and drawing the attention of
> tougher ceratopsid etc prey from larger tyrannosaurs approaching from a
> different direction.

This sounds eerily familiar (see my war of words with HP Booth in
October/November last year).

It's certainly possible. However, attributing one behaviour to ALL
tyrannosaur (and other large theropod) species may be a bit naive. That
would be like saying that, because lions hunt in groups, that all big
cats do (or the reverse; most big cats are solitary, so all are). 

There were more large theropod species that just T.rex (despite what
most lay people think), and I suspect their suite of behaviours were
widely varied, perhaps even between closely related species (as with
lions and tigers).

-- 
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Dann Pigdon                   Australian Dinosaurs:
GIS / Archaeologist         http://www.geocities.com/dannsdinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia        http://www.alphalink.com.au/~dannj/
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