Re: Chickens are Myrmecophages

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

On Wed, May 23rd, 2012 at 1:17 PM, Augusto Haro <augustoharo@gmail.com> wrote:

> Dann's point makes one wonder that Tyrannosaurus-sized omnivorous
> birds would have likely feasted on most mammals, including almost all
> primates and terrestrial carnivores. Whatever impeded avialans
> reaching the maximal size of other coelurosaurs, it seems to have been
> good for mammals...

Dromornithids may have been been the bane of many a small- to medium-sized 
mammal - and at 
a fraction of the size of a tyrannosaur. 

Although I'd imagine there'd be a point where the meal was so small that a 
tyranno-chicken 
wouldn't bother wasting any energy trying to catch it. I recently saw some 
lions at an open-range 
zoo who happened to be on a starve day (so we missed seeing them get fed), and 
they payed no 
attention at all to the tiny fairy wrens foraging about them.

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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