[gleeaikin]

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.

[SunkenCiv]

I think the story (or one or more like it) about the solar flares has been posted. Thanks g.

[Sherman Logan]

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.

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.