Re: Gastric stones of dinosaurs were not for milling food !

[don ohmes <d_ohmes@yahoo.com>]

Heh.  _Average_ 4 bites per minute. For 10 hours. No chewing time figured in. 
Chewing takes a _long_ time. [BTW-- cows don't really chew, at least until they 
got a load in the tank, so they make a better reference point. Sorry about 
mentioning horses.] 

Open mouth-- 1 sec. Inhale leaf cluster-- 1 sec. Close mouth-- 1 sec. Pull head 
back to "strip'-- 1 sec. Swallow-- 1 sec. That is 12 bites per minute, and 
doesn't not include time spent moving to a new stand, locating the next 
mouthful, or pre-positioning of head. I think to meet these numbers, even 
temporarily, is extraordinarily difficult in realistic scenarios re abundance 
and quality of vegetation.

Do you really think they can average 8 bites per minute over the course of a 
day? Maybe so, but truly, I think 4 is high. They were not farm animals with 
their heads in a feed trough. But this is why a model is needed.

Don

----- Original Message ----
From: David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>
To: DML <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2006 12:44:51 PM
Subject: Re: Gastric stones of dinosaurs were not for milling food !

> average of 4 bites/minute

That is my point. I think this number is too low by a factor of at least 2. 
No need to waste 15 seconds chewing each and every bite.