Re: late night thoughts: not all T. rexes were adults

[don ohmes <d_ohmes@yahoo.com>]

Yep. throw in pebbly skin, a good color job, and you have a biotic landmine... 
why we are at it, let's get the anole-style background color matching option, 
and some of them what-cha-ma-callems to break up the silhoutte? Feathers! I 
mean proto-feathers!

Hard to see, specially at night. Although the feathers are a bit much... also 
highly important to my simple mind is the ability to adopt a tripodal squatting 
pose that can be held effortlessly for hours. Anybody got a clue on that last?

Don

----- Original Message ----
From: "gerarus@westnet.com.au" <gerarus@westnet.com.au>
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Sent: Thursday, June 7, 2007 8:58:45 PM
Subject: Re: late night thoughts: not all T. rexes were adults

>>I can see one possible scenario:
>>
>>Hadrosaur1: "Oh no! Juvenile tyrannosaurids! What do we do?"
>>Hadrosaur2: "Lets hide behind that big tyrannosaur-shaped rock until
>they've
>>gone...

I can speak from my own experience how easy it is for a relatively
large animal to "hide in plain view", so long as its not moving. My
first ever encounter with a bittern (a large heron-like bird) left a
definite impression on this account with me. Bitterns freeze in an
upright position when possible danger approaches, and will not move
unless the danger is almost on top of them. I got quite a shock when
riding a four-wheeler (or quad bike, or whatever you want to call it)
across the middle of an open, bare flat and having a previously
unnoticed piece of the landscape suddenly launch itself into the air
a few metres ahead of me.

I'll grant that a _Tyrannosaurus_ is a little larger than a bittern,
but I can still quite easily believe that a motionless
_Tyrannosaurus_ may not be registered by passing herbivores,
especially if there are a few trees around - not necessarily enough
to hide the entire predator, but just enough to break up the outline.

    Cheers,

        Christopher Taylor