From: John Conway <john_conway@mac.com> Reply-To: john_conway@mac.com To: dinosaur@usc.edu Subject: Re: How Did Hadrosaurs Survive? (Was: Hadrosaur "mummy" questions) Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 04:48:41 +1100
On Sunday, October 27, 2002, at 12:55 AM, Tim Donovan wrote:
By running away, but not(all) hadrosaurs could escape a new predator with consummate senses and speed.
We do not know how fast tyrannosaurs could run, and we do not know how fast hadrosaurs could run. Short legs does not = slow.
It is logical, and lambeosaurs were also relatively bulky.
Besides, the important thing for predator is MATCH it's prey's speed, so that it can aim it's bite.
slower, but twisting and turning would make it very difficult for a tyrannosaur to land a bite. Cheetahs don't do that well, despite their superior speed; mostly because of the twists and turns of their prey . Tyrannosaurs would have had incredible inertia, and may not have been able to accelerate/decelerate as quickly as hadrosaurs. Matching the hadrosaurs speed for speed, turn for turn, may have been very tricky.
As for big _Tyrannosaurus_ killing all the duckbills; need I mention the Nemegt? _Tyrannosaurus_, and _Saurolophus_ as the most common multi tonner, as I recall. Think outside of the North America. :-)
John Conway, Palaeoartist
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes." - Walt Whitman
Systematic ramblings: http://homepage.mac.com/john_conway/ Palaeoart: http://homepage.mac.com/john_conway/_palaeoart.html