Re: Sea reptile is biggest on record

[Colin McHenry <cmchenry@westserv.net.au>]

Dann Pigdon wrote:
> Tim Williams writes:
> > Any ideas on what these mega-pliosaurs ate?
>
> Anything they wanted to. :)

Something like that, although I think you need to frame the question in 
terms of what sort of prey might have been available. Kronosaurus is the 
largest animal in its fauna, so while the ability to munch other marine 
reps may sound impressive, it doesn't necessarily put it in the same 
league as a Balaenoptera-munching killer whale.

The possibility that some of these M-L Jurrasic pliosaurs where able to 
take big fish like Leedsichthys is intriguing - at least they'd be 
picking on something their own size - but I have no idea if there's 
anything like Leedsichthys in the Kimmeridgian / Volgian, which is when 
these 12-15m pliosaurs seem to be mostly from.

Actually, I think the question of minimum prey size in these animals is 
at least as important as the maximum prey size.  But I'm just writing 
that chapter in my thesis... ;-)

Cheers
Col


--
Colin McHenry
Computation Biomechanics Research Group http://www.compbiomech.com/
School of Engineering (Mech Eng)
University of Newcastle
NSW 2308

t: +61 2 4921 8879