Posted on 06/23/2011 5:27:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Tyrannosaurids... formidable but solitary and dull-witted creatures because their skeletons were found alone. But new research based on finds in the Gobi Desert suggests that the species was not only equipped with the build and speed for pack hunting, but also the brain capacity to work together as a team, experts claim. Dr Philip Currie, of the University of Alberta, said that evidence from 90 skeletons of Tarbosaurus Bataar -- a cousin of the Tyrannosaurus Rex -- suggested strongly that about half a dozen of the dinosaurs were part of a social group that died together. He said Tyrannosaurids' hunting technique may have involved juveniles chasing and catching prey, with fully grown adults taking over and delivering the fatal bites. This is because younger Tyrannosaurids' skeletons show they would have been faster and more agile than adults, which were slower but much heavier and more powerful. The close similarities between the Tyrannosaurid family -- as well as evidence from a quarry site in South Dakota, USA where three Tyrannosaurus Rex skeletons were found in close proximity -- mean that Tyrannosauruses would likely have been capable of the same behaviour as their cousins, Dr Currie said.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I didn’t just get off the banana boat and be all citified.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2739090/posts?page=7#7
I think that the general scientific opinion has shifted to the idea that catastrophes have a significant impact, but that uniformitarian principles explain a lot for less exciting periods. SC, speaking of Catastrophes, when I pulled up the rest of the article, I noticed a link to serious NASA concern about large solar flares that you might want to post separately.
Regarding TR packs, I read a while back that they have a very large olfactory lobe which it is suggested could smell carrion as far as 20 miles away. Certainly their long legs would enable them to get there fast. So I guess one question is whether they were mixed scavengers/predators like a Hyena pack, or primarily hunters like a lion pride where the smaller females do a lot of the hunting with the big males dealing death blows to large prey. Of course, some other arrangement is also possible.
They should have stuck to the book and wrote him off the pic he is annoying
But i notice there are a lot of whinny snot noses as movie stars today.
I think the story (or one or more like it) about the solar flares has been posted. Thanks g.
Yeah, weird, eh? A whole herd of Edmontosaurus (I think it was) found on a plain? Nope, not a death assemblage, they just happened to die and be fossilized numerous times over millennia. ;’)
Lion alpha males don't do a lot of hunting of even the largest prey.
Their primary role is to defend the pride's territory against other prides and other predators.
They're warriors, not hunters.
Thanks WOBBLY BOB, that’s the one.
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