Re: T-rex predation

["Peter Von Sholly" <vonrex@gte.net>]

Oooo! You said "packs".  Now you're gonna get it.  Brian?

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> From: Dictator-for-life Calvin <MWEDEL@gslan.offsys.ou.edu>
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: Re:  T-rex predation
> Date: Wednesday, September 10, 1997 12:43 PM
> 
> I don't know too much about energy budgets, etc., but offhand I can't 
> think of any modern ecosystems where the *largest* carnivore is 
> primarily a scavenger.  IMHO (and I'm sure that several have 
> expressed this point before me), tyrannosaurs seem WAY overdesigned 
> for scavenging.
> 
> I've got a couple of questions.  First, I'm primarily interested in 
> the Lower Cretaceous and my knowledge of the Late Cretaceous lacks 
> depth.  That said, I have the impression that the spectrum of 
> late K carnivores has dromaeosaurs at the small end, tyrannosaurs at 
> the large end, and not a whole lot in between.  Is this accurate?  
> And if so, if the tyrannosaurs were just scavengers, who was doing 
> the predation?  Is it realistic to suppose that dromaeosaur packs 
> were the main predators of multi-ton ceratopids, hadrosaurs, and 
> ankylosaurs?
> 
> Before somebody flames me regarding dromaeosaur capabilities, I 
> certainly think that a pack could take down a lone individual from 
> one of the above groups (well, maybe not the ankylo), but I just 
> can't see them doing ALL the bladework.
> 
> There's my two cents,
> Matt Wedel