BBC2 Horizon and South American Dinos

["jocelyn" <jocelyn.m.hasskamp@stud.man.ac.uk>]

Hi

I've just joined the list and whilst being no expert on dinosaurs I 
cannot help but comment on last nights UK program about 
Argentinosaurus and Giganotosaurus. Mainly I wasn't convinced by 
the sceptics who thought that Giganotosaurus couldnot have 
shown 'pack hunting' characteristics in order to kill their quarry.  
Surely its a characteristic that when faced with the dilemma of how 
to successfully hunt an animal much larger than yourself some sort 
of 'rudementary' and i stress that form of cooperative hunting 
behaviour would evolve (re: hyena example).  My immediate doubts 
as to the strength of the sceptics arguement was that the first 
example used was the finding of tracks of large herbivorous 
dinosaur tracks which show tight herding - no surprise there!!! 
Safety in numbers and grouiping together to protect weaker 
individuals . After all a parallel can be drawn between this and 
buffalo herds which move as one body changing direction together. 
But it can hardly be extended as an arguement for non-packing 
activities in carnivores as this behaviour is not displayed with 
carnivores moving as individuals - e.g. hyenas again!! 
All I can say is there is a distinction between packs and herds - 
the latter being more herbivorous behaviour.

By the way who noticed that the length of Argentinosaurus was 
compared to a herd of elephants - how big a herd?!?!
Jocelyn - University of Manchester.