Re: Theropod eating and attacking

[Blue Rider <blurdr@gte.net>]

Jarno Peschier wrote:
> 
> On  1 Sep 97 at 23:16, Jonathon Woolf wrote:


> > 
> 
> The same is often true for horses in stables and for pet rabbits for
> instance. They also get mineral blocks to lick for the minerals they
> need. In the wild these blocks are not available, so all these
> animals must get their minerals from some other source in the wild.
> 
> If it's not gnawing on found bones, then what might it be? Minerals
> from the soil? The normal wildlife diet? Interesting problem...
> 
> Jarno Peschier
>  

In many places all over the world there are places where the soil is full of 
salts of 
various kinds.  These "salt licks" seem often to be near water.  Animals come 
from near 
and far to lick and chew the soil for the minerals in it.
I've read that, in Africa, the places where safari hunters went just outside 
the tents 
to empty their bladders just before bed were popular with hippos and rhinos as 
salt 
licks.  Porcupines are notorious for eating *anything* with salt in or on it, 
from axe 
handles to gloves to car tires.  I'd bet on bones *plus* dirt full of salts, 
whichever 
is at hand at a given moment.

Blue