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

[Chris Campbell <sankarah@ou.edu>]

Larry Dunn wrote:
> 
> Sankarah wrote, replying to Jeff Martz:
> 
> >Looking at what I wrote, I should have said "piercing" instead of
> >slicing.  They'd be bad for slicing, I think, but good for piercing.
> 
>  and
> 
> >True.  I think a decent tactic might be to pierce again and again,
> >leaving the prey to die from blood loss.  This would be doable with
> >medium sized prey like your smaller hadrosaurs, particularly if lots of
> >individuals are doing it.
> 
> Well, this certainly is a lot less convincing than the huge gashes they
> were "obviously" making before.  This makes the whole scenario seem that
> much more ridiculous. Jump up, poke, get down.  Jump up, poke, get down.
> Have at you!

Well, it's not more ridiculous if they couldn't *make* slashed in their
prey.  OTOH, try getting stabbed sometime, and see how effective it is.
 
> And how does this gel with earlier statements on Deinonychus predation?
> For instance, are we to understand that the properly ventilated
> Tenontosaur eventually keeled over and crushed the three Deinonychus?

Does it really matter if it's disembowelled or poked?  It's still gonna
crush whatever it falls upon.
 
> >I agree, slicing per se wouldn't work.  Lots of stab wounds would be
> >much more effective, however.
> 
> They would? Sharon Tate might disagree (sorry, couldn't resist). I'd
> rather gut a creature than poke it full of holes, if I were a predator
> (unless I were planning to ship something live in it).

Yeah, I'm sure you would -- if you could physically do it.
 
Chris