Re: Spinosaurs ate pterosaurs

[Amtoine Grant <ajgrant@eastlink.ca>]

> Certainly many raptorial birds dive bomb terrestrial prey from above, 
> and a
> variety of cats pounce onto animals from the concealment of trees.  I 
> would
> think that gliding from trees would enable a predator to pounce more 
> safely
> and with a better measure of control from a greater height (and hence 
> from a
> vantage point that is harder for the prey item to spot).
>
> There is no reason to presume that this hunting strategy must be 
> applied to
> flying prey or prey in the trees -- it is clearly effective against 
> prey
> that is on the ground (or, conveniently, at a water hole).  The only
> requirement would be that the prey item should be large enough to 
> justify
> the energy expended.  A large insect could satisfy a small predator, 
> but
> larger predators would pursue larger prey.  That's about all there is 
> to it.

~Recalls the scene from JP3 where the Raptors jump up towards their 
dangling, trapped  prey. Talk about getting it backwards.