On 2/10/2011 3:35 PM, Jaime Headden wrote:
My understanding, however, is that few sauropod specimens show signs of theropod aggression. One may assume that the material that would show it may have been pulverized, if we assume that even a carcass would be consumed by any carnivore. Carnivores leave distinctive feeding traces that are sometimes_very_ difficult to confuse with taphonomic processes (something Denver alluded to), so I would suspect it should be fairly easy to find traces of theropod feeding.
Two notes -- the prime cuts on a giant sauropod would have been the internal organs -- easy to access, ingest, and likely the bulk of the nutritional value (that last is based on the idea that the ratio of muscle to body mass decreases w' size -- corrections appreciated).
So why would an elite predator gnaw bones? I am guessing the "drumsticks" would have been a tad on the chewy side...
Also -- tactically, it is logical that a giant biped that attacked a giant quad in an area where preservation was likely to occur (i.e., a swamp), would BE the fossil... albeit a flat one.