Re: Theropod eating and attacking

["Jarno Peschier" <jpeschie@cs.ruu.nl>]

On 30 Aug 97 at 21:37, jamolnar@juno.com wrote:

> > Predators can, if their digestive systems are strong enough,
> > get calcium from the hard bits of their prey; but where
> > exactly do herbivores get their calcium?
> 
> Many herbivores chew on bones and antlers that they find of dead
> animals out in the wild.  Any skulls, turtles shells, bones left out
> in the wild have plenty of chew marks on them from this gnawing,
> especially from rodents.

Mmm, just a question: Would these "plenty of chew marks" show up on 
fossils? Is there evidence of this gnawing by herbivores on 
fossilised bones from the mesozoic? Or would he "dead animals out in 
the wild" generally be the ones that end up in places where they do 
not fossilize well (also meaning that the ones that end up in e.g. 
riverbeds and that do fossilize well aren't gnawed on because these 
dead animals end up in water)? In other words: would hebivorous 
dinosaurs (and other mesozoic animals) also have gnawed on the bones 
of dead animals they found and if they would, is there any evidence 
of this?

Jarno Peschier, computer science student, Utrecht University
   mailto:jpeschie@cs.ruu.nl    http://jarno.home.ml.org/
____________________________________________________________
    'avwI' nejDI' narghta'bogh qama' reH 'avwI' Sambej