[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]

Re: Bitten Ornithopod on This Side Of Hell?

Dan Pigdon 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?

One problem is that subadult prey may have been protected by adults, making solo attacks by juvenile tyrannosaurs too risky. And adult tyrannosaurs preyed on subadults; one Daspletosaurus specimen had juvenile hadrosaur stomach contents.

> 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 is evidence for gregarious or pack behaviour in T. rex, a South American carcharodontosaur and Albertosaurus, possibly also T. bataar.



_________________________________________________________________
STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail