RE: T. rex vs. Alamosaurus

["Patrick Mellor" <mel0812a@westminster.org.uk>]

        What age was this excavation, would it have been latest
Maastrichtian? Sauropods moving back North in the latest Cretaceous has
always seemed very strange to me, because I don't see how they could
have competed effectively as herbivores against the hadrosaurs. It
obviously happened though, and I wonder what advantage enabled the
sauropods to do this....  

                -----Original Message----- 
                From: Mark Loewen 
                Sent: Wed 07/02/2001 21:09 
                To: dinosaur@usc.edu 
                Cc: Paamy 
                Subject: T. rex vs. Alamosaurus
                
                

                <<How could T. Rex have attacked sauropods? The only
sauropod in North America
                in the Maastrichtian was Alamosaurus and this lived
further south than what
                is generally considered rex country, although only from
fossil evidence...>>>
                
                Scott Sampson's team from the University of Utah
excavated a large (Sue sized)
                theropod this past summer.  The excavation was a tenth
of a mile from the
                original Alamosaurus site and just a few meters up
section within the North
                Horn Formation.  Large teeth have also been found lower
in the section (in the
                North Horn Formation), so I think it is safe to assume
the two animals
                coexisted within the same habitat.
                
                Cheers,
                Mark Loewen
                Utah Museum of Natural History
                1390 East Presidents Circle
                Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-0050
                Phone: 801-587-9324
                Fax:   801-585-3684
                mloewen@umnh.utah.edu