Horner at the NHM

[Mike Taylor <mike@indexdata.com>]

Hi All,

Just got back from an interesting panel discussion at the (UK) Natural
History Museum's Darwin Centre: John Horner and Norm Macleod
discussion (among other things) the recurrent scavenger/predator
thing.  They both came across as really nice guys; in particular, they
were good with the kids in the audience.  No surprise that Horner got
most of the questions -- he's the Big Name, plus poor Macleod is
handicapped by specialising in really dull foraminifera :-)  Horner
got very uncomfortable at one stage when someone in the audience kept
describing him as "the modern Baron Cuvier"!

I took the opportunity to ask him the question that's been on the list
of late: if _T. rex_ wasn't the top predator in its ecosystem, then
what was?  His answer: raptors.  Really _big_ raptors :-) I have to
say I found this profoundly unconvincing.  Even _Utahraptor_ doesn't
come in about a tonne; it's asking a lot for one-tonne animals to
_regularly_ take out eight-ton _Triceratops_ individuals (not to
mention that it was 55 million years too early!)

 _/|_    _______________________________________________________________
/o ) \/  Mike Taylor  <mike@indexdata.com>  http://www.miketaylor.org.uk
)_v__/\  "You question the worthiness of my code?  I should kill you
         where you stand!" -- Klingon Programming Mantra

--
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