Re: Huge Freakin' Snake!

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

Quoting Augusto Haro <augustoharo@gmail.com>:

> I am not so sure competition is so important to avoid a snake reaching
> the size of endothermic predators. After all, in the tropics you have
> snakes that can rival in size with the endothermic top predators, and
> even exceed them (consider the anaconda and jaguar). I think
> competition is not always as straightforwardly implied by the fact
> that two animals consume a same prey (something we don't know really
> with fossils); this would require ecological studies difficult to
> accomplish in fossils.

As David Marjanovic pointed out; modern snakes don't have large theropods or 
marine reptiles to 
contend with. The difference between an anaconda and a jaguar is only minor by 
comparison.

Competition is certainly about more than shared prey items. One species can 
out-compete another 
simply by keeping it out of prime habitat. With large theropods patrolling the 
Cretaceous shorelines 
for free meals, and all manner of marine reptiles filling many niches in the 
water, a giant 
Cretaceous snake would have found itself between a rock and a hard place.

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist              http://geo_cities.com/dannsdinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia             http://heretichides.soffiles.com
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