Re: The absurdity, the absurdity (was: Cooperating theropods?)

["Larry Dunn" <larrydunn@hotmail.com>]

Sankarah wrote:

>> Why just look at the claw and ignore the brain and other anatomy of 
the
>> animal?  Especially when there are other rationales for the claw?
>
>Like what?  

Like the dromaeosaur predation technique we have a shred of reasonable 
evidence for.  A preserved Velociraptor has it's sickle claw at the neck 
of a Protoceratops.  Why ignore that and have dromaeosaurs hopping up on 
much larger animals and doing an ice skating routine on their backs?

>I don't see what the brain has to do with it; pack tactics can be
>practiced by such simple-minded animals as hammerhead sharks, so I 
don't
>think a bright therapod would have much trouble.

Apples and oranges.  The sea is a different place from the land.  
Animals behave completely differently there because the rules are 
different.  

>> But Deinonychus was not a mammal.
>
>So what?  If sharks, birds, and lizards can use pack tactics on
>rudimentary levels, I see no reason to leave dinosaurs out.

Sharks have already been dealt with. Birds are inapposite for much the 
same reasons; anyway, some people on this list had to bend over 
backwards to find *any* hunting cooperation among birds.  And are you 
actually proposing that *lizards* are pack hunters?  Why? Because Oras 
share still-living meals?  

Are lizards, sharks and birds the animals you are proposing to justify 
the pack-hunting dromaeosaur?

Larry

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