Re: I t'ought I saw a Spinosaur

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

On Sat, 3 Jul 2004, kustom66 wrote:
> On Saturday, July 3, 2004, at 01:18  PM, Richard W. Travsky wrote:
> > On Sat, 3 Jul 2004, kustom66 wrote:
> >> On Saturday, July 3, 2004, at 01:06  PM, Amtoine Grant wrote:
> >>>> David Marjanovic wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> Had it been a parachuter, it would have had to climb back up the
> >>>>> height of
> >>>>> the entire tree each time it had caught one insect. Less efficient
> >>>>> even than
> >>>>> jumping up from the ground, right?
> >>>>
> >>>> I suppose that depends on the rate of success.  Admittedly, no 
> >>>> modern
> >>>> animal that I know of catches insects by leaping from the ground 
> >>>> into
> >>>> the air
> >>
> >> Cats do that - they do it to avian dinosaurs, too.
> >
> > Most likely for play.
> 
> But birds are their favoured prey, not just playthings. Usually 

Altho my current cat can and does eat what he catches, he brings them
in to play with. Sigh...I had to buy a largish acquarium dipnet so I
could more easily catch them...

> catching one requires some degree of leaping from the ground. The 
> serval in particular accomplishes some prodigious leaps in this pursuit.

I've watched mine "hunt", he stalks a bird on the ground and then does a
running lunge with outstretched claws (to snag).
 
> Feral cats in Australia are reviled by naturalists for their impact on 
> native birds.

And also in parts of the US, and, I understand, England, and no doubt may
other places...

I'm not sure I mentioned dinosaurs yet...um, birds are dinosaurs...