On Sun, 12 Sep 2021 20:35:59 -0700 (PDT), Daud Deden
<
daud.deden@gmail.com> wrote:
On Wednesday, May 5, 2021 at 2:34:50 PM UTC-4, 69jp...@gmail.com wrote:
On Sun, 11 Apr 2021 12:20:14 -0700 (PDT), Sight Reader
<thesigh...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello everyone!
I’m relatively new to reading about dinosaurs, so please forgive me if this a really stupid idea or gets asked way too much. Anyway, it sounds like T-rex really wasn’t really faster than most of its prey, so now I’m trying to picture how
something like a T-rex might hunt.
Could a T-rex have hunted by OUTLASTING its prey instead of out-sprinting it? I’ve heard this idea of “persistence hunting” proposed for early hominids, where your advantage is the ability to sustain an elevated pace of pursuit for long periods
of time without needing long recovery periods. Might T-rex have simply been in “better shape” than its prey, using its tracking skills to relentlessly close on hiding prey who were still trying to cool down after burning too much energy sprinting
away?
Thanks for any ideas... and for not laughing at me, if possible!
I recall a time when I was young and dumb and full of... dinosaurs.
The consensus was dinos were cold-blooded, overweight behemoths which
had trouble enough getting out of their own way. If T.rex actively
hunted, it was only because their prey were equally lumps of scaly
flesh, living on metabolic Valium, lazing in swampy jacuzzis, as
illustrated in museum panoramas.
Also, dinos were dumb, small-brained dumb, Baby Huey dumb, perhaps not
quite as dumb as rocks, but only just. Dinos were so dumb they
couldn't help but succumb to us smarty-pants mammals.
So if you had suggested back then that T.rex might have persistence
hunted, which requires not only great energy and stamina, but also
inelligence and teamwork, I have no doubt you would have inspired a
few smirks and chuckles, if not outright guffaws and hoots.
And then I read about John Ostrom's hyper Deinonychus and Jack
Horner's nest-building Maiasaurus. And then I read Robert Bakker's
Scientific American article, that dinosaurs were warm-blooded, fast
growing, and built for speed. And then I read about dinosaurs with
feathers and that birds are dinosaurs.
After the paradigm shift of this Dinosaur Renaissance, nobody is going
to laugh at your idea.
Built for speed? No, built for balance during bipedal walking, parallel to giant ground sloths and giant short-faced kangaroos.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.201441
Finally they are questioning the running T rex motif.
Dinosaurs, with their vertical legs, hips strongly attached to their
spine, close to their center of gravity, and pneumatized bones, had
greater speed and endurance than other animals of the Triassic.
WRT T.rex specifically, their range in size, from hatchling to mature
adult, may have required an adjustment in lifestyle and locomotion.
Although there are no land animals today even close to the mass of an
adult T.rex, multi-ton extant species like hippo, rhinoceros, and
elephant still approach 25-30 mph in a sprint when sufficiently
motivated. My understanding is young T.rex did at least as well.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)