On 7/21/2011 6:46 PM, Jason Brougham wrote:
If a human fights an abelisaurid the human dies, always.
With a well-made atlatl and dart, a human might take an abelisaurid -- certainly an atlatl w/ Clovis style dart-tips can inflict potentially lethal wounds on elephants -- George Frison* proved that years ago.
Judging by how hard wild turkeys and geese are to kill, that might be overly optimistic, though, and I would think an atlatl would only be effective in a stalk-and-kill situation...
*Searching "Frison elephant" should take you to an article in American Antiquity".
In grad school I knew a guy who had grown up near an ostrich ranch. He said that the dude who worked the ranch showed him a trick once.
I took a casual poll of ostrich and emu farmers once -- they all agree that the big birds fall down sometimes, especially adolescents 'cutting the fool'. Apparently sloping ground can exacerbate falling problems by increasing speed.