RE: Tyrannosaurus - scavenger, my craggy butte

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Craven, David
>
> I've always thought the Rex would be kind of like the lion in
> africa. A bit
> of both. Quite capable of hunting it's own food, but not averse to
> scavenging if it's easy meat.
>
> The "Either/Or" mentality in palaeontology really annoys me sometimes!
>
With all do respect, ZERO (count them, "0") paleontologists have proposed
that Tyrannosaurus was an obligate predator.  So this is hardly an
"Either/Or" mentality.  The two essential positions are:

1) Obligate Scavenging, supported by Horner.
2) Tyrannosaurs were typical carnivores, and consequently both hunted and
scavenged.

For a kid-friendly version of this debate, see my recent Random House
Step-Into-Reading book _T. rex: Hunter or Scavenger_.  For technical
versions, see recent papers by Farlow and me, me, Ken Carpenter, and many
others...

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796