On 4/19/2011 1:16 PM, Jason Brougham wrote:
Varricchio (Gut Contents from a Cretaceous Tyrannosaurid: Implications for Theropod Dinosaur Digestive Tracts. David J. Varricchio. Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 75, No. 2 (Mar., 2001), pp. 401-406) reports a Daspletosaurus with acid - etched caudal vertebrae and a dentary from juvenile hadrosaur associated.
I would guess that Horner likes that... :)
Are modern crocodilians definitely primarily scavengers? We've all seen the youtube videos where they engage in ambush predation on large animals. Cretaceous crocodilians were more diverse and could have included more active predators.
The argument is not that crocs are scavengers -- the argument is that a critter that eats a lot of bone evolves very strong acids -- hence, the presence of bone preserved in the gut indicates that bone was not very important as a dietary component, which seems unlikely in a scavenger.
Sorry about the above cut'n'paste from my reply to David -- should have combined the reply, but carelessly did not see it in time...,