Egested muscle tissue (was Re: Tyrannosaurs gorged on the young)

["Martin Barnett" <martin.barnett3@virgin.net>]

Matt Bonnan wrote:
> While the size and bone pieces in the coprolite indicate a large predator
as
> already discussed here, another interesting point made by Dr. Chin was the
> presence of muscle tissue in the coprolite.  Karen Chin thought this might
> suggest a number of possibilities, including illness, quick digestion
(aka,
> quick metabolic rate), or gorging.  She pointed out that dogs will
commonly
> have undigested flesh in their feces, depending on how much they gorge
> themselves or what kind of meals they eat.
Interesting:  So, the more sickly an animal is, the more muscle tissue is
undigested?  Likewise the greater the metabolic rate, the greater the
chances of muscle tissue passing undigested?  Ditto for gorging?  I don't
suppose there's ANY chance of discovering which culprits are responsible and
in what quantity - in other words are there ways of telling one type of
egested muscle tissue from another?

Samuel Barnett