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

[Chris Campbell <sankarah@ou.edu>]

Betty Cunningham wrote:
> 
> sankarah@ou.edu wrote:
> > Jonathon Woolf wrote:
> > > Chris Campbell wrote:
> > > > Jonathon Woolf wrote:
> 
> > > > > The tactics that work against a cat that can only run a hundred meters
> > > > > before dropping don't work against a predator that can dog the prey's
> > > > > heels for miles, until the prey animal finally tires and falls.
> > > >
> > > > Depends.  Horns work pretty well regardless.
> > >
> > > Most large mammalian herbivores have no horns, or their horns are not 
> > > usable as
> > > weapons.
> >
> > Bison?  Buffalo?  Elk?  Moose?  Wildebeest?  These are our large
> > mammalian predators, andthey allhave either horns or antlers (and all
> > use them in defense).
> 
> That's BOY bison, BOY buffaloes, BOY elk, BOY moose.  (typical male
> response to forget the babes)

"Typical male response?"  I'd check my sources before making comments
like this.  You just wind up looking really stupid.  Female bison and
buffalo carry horns.  Most, but not all, genera of antelope also carry
horns. Female elk and moose (which are the same species, which I should
have remembered but didn't), like most cervids, do not have antlers. 
Reindeer (or caribou, if you prefer), another prey species of wolves, do
indeed have antlers.  

> Girls (and youths) of the same species outnumber the adult males and
> have no horns or antlers WHATSOEVER.

Again, quite incorrect.  Check your references; I suggest _Walker's
Mammals of the World_, which is to mammals what _Dinosaurs: the
Encyclopedia_ is to Dinosaurs (with no errors, to boot!).

> I _think_ wildebeest/gnu girls have horns but I aint positive.

They do, like most female antelope.

Chris