Re: attack on dinosaur--horrific video

[Graydon <oak@uniserve.com>]

On Sun, Nov 25, 2007 at 11:16:32AM -0800, don ohmes scripsit:
> For prey, large size might also present tactical problems. I wonder
> how a herd of sauropod equivalents can defend a position against
> rat-sized creatures. The eggs would be doomed, either to crushing or
> ingestion.

Any one sauropod produces, on average, in a stable population, one egg
which itself survives to breed.  They laid an awful lot of eggs.  It may
have been a simple case of swamping the predators.  (Or evolving
unpalatable eggs.)

There's also that whip-tails might not have been effective as an
anti-predator device against predators able and interested in taking on
adult sauropods, but anything in the under-100 kg nest predation niches
would have *splashed*.  (Big eyes, long neck, lots of volume coverage
for the tail; it could make life very tricky for a nest predator.)

-- Graydon