RE: Austroraptor cabazai

[Tim Williams <tijawi@yahoo.com>]

Guy Leahy wrote:

> I would agree the forelimbs, teeth and jaws of _Austroraptor_ suggest 
> primarily a diet of small prey, though the bigass size of _Austroraptor_
> suggests it was capable of taking somewhat larger prey (small/juvenile
> ornithopods, for example.)


Yes - I should have said "smaller".  In other words, smaller than 
_Austroraptor_.  This is based on a spinosaurid analogy, because spinosaurids 
are know to have preyed on small ornithopods, pterosaurs, and
fish.  I had this in mind for _Austroraptor_ too.  Other dromaeosaurids (the 
longer-armed ones) appear to have targeted larger prey, with _Deinonychus_ and 
_Velociraptor_ the prime examples of this ecology.


> IMHO, _Austroraptor_ and other unenlagiines look like Gondwanan 
> troodontid mimics...

Jeez, that's an interesting idea.


> are troodonts exclusively Laurasian?

I think so.  I'll have to dust off my copy of "Dinosauria II" and check for 
certain.


Cheers

Tim