Re: Forty years of predation on Serengeti.

[John Bois <jbois@umd5.umd.edu>]

On Wed, 24 Sep 2003, Mark Hallett wrote:

> Forster's PALEOECOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE VERTEBRATE
> FAUNA OF THE MORRISON FORMATION (NMM, 2003, the study
> concludes that in the Morrison there may have been a
> lower abundance of vertebrate prey species in the
> middle adult weight catagories (10-500 kg), due in
> part from predation pressure by theropods in the
> middle-large size ranges; this is similar to the
> situation that Sinclair et al report in their
> findings.

Yes, it is.  And consider that larger species would spend considerable
time (years?) passing through this range on their way to relative
immunity.  Perhaps this was the preferred prey of said theropods--in that
view, adults in that range may have been eliminated by
theropod opportunists.