Re: Woman against Abelisaur

[vultur-10@neo.tamu.edu]

A medieval longbow could probably kill an abelisaur, presuming you shot the 
right place (over the heart etc.) They were made to deal with armor, so were 
much higher draw-weight than modern bows (even bear hunting ones). The problem 
is the extreme training needed... medieval longbowmen were trained from early 
childhood. And even with the training, women with the upper body strength 
needed to use a 150 lb draw weight bow are going to be really rare.

Horse archery could be very effective, assuming the abelisaur is slower and has 
less endurance than a horse with rider.

Also... what might work as a one-time, desperate, "wow I can't believe I 
survived that" method of killing an abelisaur would be a lot different from 
what would be a repeatable, "standard" method for doing it. People have killed 
bears with ludicrously inadequate weaponry once or twice - I could see someone 
killing an abelisaur with a sword or spear *once*, if they were really quick 
and lucky (hit a vital point on the head, like the brain through the eye, when 
it ducked down its head to bite them).

(I imagine the standard method to get rid of big theropods near settled areas 
would be to lure them to a known location with bait and shoot them with 
poisoned arrows, fleeing on horses to keep away until the theropod succumbed to 
the poison.)


----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Williams" <tijawi@gmail.com>
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 10:54:16 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: Re: Woman against Abelisaur

Dan Chure <danchure@easilink.com> wrote:

> She wouldn't necessarily have to roll up in a ball. There is a documented
> case in Glacier National Park many years ago of a couple hiking when they
> were charged by a grizzly bear.  With no where to run and hide the used what
> they had, an umbrella, and popped it open automatically and ducking down
> behind it.


Out of interest, does the woman in 'Woman Against Abelisaur' happen to
be Rihanna?



Anthony Docimo <keenir@hotmail.com> wrote:

> what about the sort Mongol archers carried? From what I hear, some folks 
> still consider them a gold standard of bows that aren't factory-made.


Didn't the Ottoman Turks improve the composite-bow even further?

BTW, a composite-bow doesn't have to be gold standard in order to be
deadly effective.  The Huns used their composite bows to devastating
effect against the Roman Empire.