Re: JP3 Thoughts (frilled Dilophosaurus revisited)

[Leonidus AK Giganotosaurus <alex@voyager.net>]

7/19/01 1:27:03 AM, "Adam Britton" <abritton@wmi.com.au> wrote:

>From: "Tracy L. Ford" <dino.hunter@home.com>
>Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2001 1:12 PM
>
>> Not to say your friend is wrong, but he is. I've heard these kind of
>> arguments ever since JP.
>
>Could you elaborate on why you think he is wrong?
>
>Adam
>

I could.

For one, they're completely unnecesary.

Dilophosaurus was the largest predator of its time and region.

Conjecturally, poison starts as trying to taste bad to a higher predator. This 
eventually results in toxicity. Venom, like that of a snake, is most likely, 
from my PoV, an adaptation of that. Either way, a Dilophosaur
would not have need of venom or poison because it's already tops in the food 
chain.

(And sorry if I added the poisonous part, but the two go hand in hand in many 
people's minds in relation to the species.)

As for the sail frill, same thing again. In frilled lizards, it's a defense 
mechanism against larger predators, making the lizard seem larger than it 
really is. Dilophosaurus wouldn't need it because it's already larger than
everything else. Even as, say, defense against others of its species, I doubt 
it would work, it's a scare tactic, really, and wouldn't work against one who 
knows what's going on.

and, some might point out a gap in my logic, that maybe the Dilophosaur didn't 
evolve as the top predator. Partially true, it's ancestors would have faced 
against the phytosaurs(or whatever pusedo crocodiles that
lived in the triassic), but such defenses wouldn't really work against them, 
due to the tactics used in capturing prey. I dunno if a psuedo-croc would have 
the neccesary visual recognition for a bad-taste scenario to
work out, because it's doubtful a small creature like that would survive even a 
single bite, at least long or well enough to mate and pass on whatever 
developing bad-taste genes it may have had. And since by the
time Dilophosaurus came about as we know it, the Triassic extinction had come 
about and wiped the psuedo-crocs out, I dunno that it would have lasted that 
long amongst them for no reason whatsoever.

Anyway, that's just what I think. Rip it to shreds as you will.

---
Leonidus AK Giganotosaurus
alex@voyager.net