Re: Tyrannosauridae

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> > > 5.) Was "T. rex" a scavenger or an agile hunter?
> >
> > Quite an agile hunter, able to run fast. Being a terrestrial
> > scavenger seems to be impossible.
>
> Er... tell that to John Hutchinson.  He says T. rex probably didn't have
an
> aerial phase,

I forgot the arguments for that :-] , they're not in
> http://www.cmnh.org/fun/dinosaur-archive/2001Jul/msg00736.html.

Personally I think *T. rex* _didn't_ run much -- someone calculated onlist a
year ago that walking at 2 steps per second results in 36 km/h --, but when
looking at the legs, I can't help thinking it was _able_ to do that.
Remember the calculation that *Giganotosaurus*, surely less cursorial than
*Tyrannosaurus*, was highly unlikely to fall at 50 km/h?
http://www.paleo.pan.pl/acta/acta46-2.htm

> Would it have been any more likely than a lion
> or hyena to turn its nose up at a dead hadrosaur buffet?

Nope.

> If you mean "pure" scavenger...

Sure. Otherwise I wouldn't have written "scavenger" in the first place.

> is there such a thing?

Some vultures, able to hang in the air without effort, come pretty close or
reach it. Discussed every year in the archives.

*Gorgosaurus libratus*... I don't think the specific epithet means free.
Liber (m) / lib_e_ra (f) / lib_e_rum (n) is free, lib_e_ratus is freed, and
lib__ra (compare lb.) is a pair of scales. Maybe lib__ratus refers to a
well-balanced animal?