| | T-Rex: Scavenger or active hunter? | |
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Minmi Ceratosaurus
Posts : 169 Reputation : 3 Join date : 2017-01-16 Location : Waterfall City, Dinotopia
| Subject: T-Rex: Scavenger or active hunter? Wed Jan 18, 2017 6:50 pm | |
| There's always been a lot of debate over wether T-Rex was an active hunter or nothing more than a scavenger. Personally, based on today's predators, I think T-Rex was both a scavenger and an active hunter. There's no reason to think T-Rex couldn't have been a hunter as it has all the things an active hunter needs: a powerful bite, strong claws, terrific vision and an excellent sense of smell. On the other hand, there's also no reason to think T-Rex couldn't have just let someone else do the hunting then come along and steal the food.
Titled "Raptor vs T-Rex", episode 11 of "Jurassic Fight Club" depicts a pack of raptors killing an Edmontosaurus, only to lose half of their meal to a hungry T-Rex (the raptors are left with nothing but their victim's tail). | |
| | | tigris115 Hatchling
Posts : 91 Reputation : 1 Join date : 2016-06-07 Location : Nassau, NY
| Subject: Re: T-Rex: Scavenger or active hunter? Wed Jan 18, 2017 8:19 pm | |
| Alright, time to staple this can of worms shut. - Why T. rex is a hunter:
Sometimes paleontologists make other paleontologists cry. One of the biggest debates between paleontologists recently was Jack Horner versus practically the rest of paleontology over whether or not Tyrannosaurus rex (and all other large theropods) were predators or scavengers. Horner was on the scavenger side, and uses arguments such as: The size of the animals is more conducive to scavenging (scare smaller animals from kills); their legs were designed for walking instead of running, and being so large any form of moving fast would endanger them by off-balancing their bodies; they can only use their mouths for attacking, which is dangerous; For T. rex specifically, the large olfactory lobe of the brain (meaning excellent smell) and the small size of the forelimbs (which prevented T. rex from holding prey with them), and the thick armor-piercing teeth and bone-crushing jaws (for breaking apart bones to get the marrow inside). The rest of paleontologynote counters with:
As prey size increases, generally so does predator size. Every prey species has at least one predator that can take it down (at least at some point in its life). The structure of the tyrannosaurid hindleg is similar to that of the ornithomimids, which were clearly cursorial. Even if they couldn't run, the large theropods would have still had a brisk walking speed, and their prey wasn't designed for speed either, favoring either keen senses, armor and weapons, or herding for protection. Many animals today use only their mouths to attack. Tyrannosaurus also had binocular vision, a primary predatory adaptation. Many predators also use smell to track prey. The forelimbs of T. rex are also very heavily built with numerous strong muscle attachments, and they're designed to twist and pivot, which shows they could easily withstand the forces of struggling prey. As for the teeth and jaws, again modern predators show that bone-breaking isn't a scavenger-only tactic (hyenas, the master bone-breakers, hunt more than they scavenge; breaking bones allows them to extract more food from a kill). Healed tyrannosaur bite marks have been found on Edmontosaurus and Triceratops bones. Since dead things don't heal, they must have escaped the tyrannosaur, showing that it actually hunted. Finally, the only true vertebrate scavengers are buzzards, vultures and condors - creatures that can cover vast amounts of territory with a minimal amount of energy expenditure. No animal the size of Tyrannosaurus could live as an exclusive scavenger, as it would use too much energy searching for carrion. Tyrannosaurus also was the only large carnivore alive at its time and location, so if it wasn't killing large prey nothing was. And most predators are also scavengers. They'll take whatever food is on hand, which is a must for creatures that don't have a reliable and easy food source the way herbivores do. Horner has acknowledged that Tyrannosaurus was an "opportunistic predator" (which is what everyone else thinks to begin with) in the only scientific paper he ever wrote on this subject. (Although he did popularize the scavenger hypothesis in books and TV shows.) Note that the debate also runs on a False Dichotomy: scavenging OR predation. In practice, most carnivores like lions, hyenas and jackals do a bit of both.
Thank you TV Tropes | |
| | | T-rex-king Embryo
Posts : 9 Reputation : 0 Join date : 2016-08-19
| Subject: Re: T-Rex: Scavenger or active hunter? Wed Jan 18, 2017 9:55 pm | |
| My theory is that they were just as active hunters and scavengers as today's land based predators (lions, tigers, bears oh my...pun intended). Yes they will hunt when necessary but will not pas up a free meal when presented the opportunity. _______________ We are just to pretty for God to let us die. -Malcolm Reynolds Firefly
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| | | Minmi Ceratosaurus
Posts : 169 Reputation : 3 Join date : 2017-01-16 Location : Waterfall City, Dinotopia
| Subject: Re: T-Rex: Scavenger or active hunter? Thu Jan 19, 2017 2:31 am | |
| I agree, T-Rex was an opportunist. It was quite happy to actively hunt but just as happy to take something that was already dead if the opportunity presented itself. The only problem I see with scavenging is that you don't know how long the animal's been dead. I've heard palaeontologists think that Sue, the largest and most complete T-Rex ever found, died of starvation after contracting a throat infection as a result of eating rotten meat. _______________ The traditional greeting of Dinotopia: "Breathe Deep, Seek Peace"
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| | | Rhedosaurus Veteran
Posts : 4978 Reputation : 140 Join date : 2016-06-08 Location : Armada, Michigan
| Subject: Re: T-Rex: Scavenger or active hunter? Tue Jan 24, 2017 1:12 pm | |
| There has been more then enough evidence via semi-healed hadrosaur and Triceratops bones that T. rex was predominantly a hunter capable of taking down live prey. True, it did scavenge sometimes, like most large predators do, but T. rex was simply too big to be a full scavenger. It's an iron law in nature that ALL big carnivores have to hunt healthy prey because they are too big to eat corpses. _______________ The undisputed dominant predator of Jurassic Mainframe.
If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree. Michael Crichton
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| | | Spinosaur4.4 Veteran
Posts : 1364 Reputation : 2 Join date : 2016-06-07 Location : My cubby room aka My world
| Subject: Re: T-Rex: Scavenger or active hunter? Wed Jan 25, 2017 6:55 pm | |
| Both. I belive in both. To be honest, a lot of carnivores are scavengers when needed. _______________ "Chaos theory is a pseudoscience you asshole" - Headcanon line from Sickle_ClawFormer JPL member, Spinosaur4.4. | |
| | | Rhedosaurus Veteran
Posts : 4978 Reputation : 140 Join date : 2016-06-08 Location : Armada, Michigan
| Subject: Re: T-Rex: Scavenger or active hunter? Wed Jan 25, 2017 7:02 pm | |
| - Spinosaur4.4 wrote:
- Both. I belive in both. To be honest, a lot of carnivores are scavengers when needed.
But most big carnivores are simply too big to subsist on scavenging all/most of their lives. That's not to say they never do, but it's simply impossible for such a big animal so live on corpses for so long. Only the copperhead is the only snake that scavenges and even then it prefers to hunt. Truth is, the T. rex being mostly a scavenger was based on faulty evidence. When Lawrence Lambe found Albertosaurus remains-which may/may not have been re-categorized as Gorgosaurus-he saw that the teeth had lack or wear which he saw a proof of a scavenger. Now we know that tyrannosaur of all forms shed teeth constantly. | |
| | | tigris115 Hatchling
Posts : 91 Reputation : 1 Join date : 2016-06-07 Location : Nassau, NY
| Subject: Re: T-Rex: Scavenger or active hunter? Wed Jan 25, 2017 7:35 pm | |
| Also I feel that saying hunter and scavenger is redundant because all terrestrial predators do so. | |
| | | CT-1138 Jurassic Mainframe News Team
Posts : 1007 Reputation : 59 Join date : 2012-04-06 Location : Chicago
| Subject: Re: T-Rex: Scavenger or active hunter? Tue Mar 14, 2017 9:26 pm | |
| Both. To sustain itself, most large predators are opportunists. They'll hunt when they can, but will scavenge when it's there. _______________ SOMETHING HAS SURVIVED | |
| | | Lost Ceratosaurus
Posts : 183 Reputation : 10 Join date : 2016-06-11
| Subject: Re: T-Rex: Scavenger or active hunter? Thu Apr 27, 2017 5:09 pm | |
| I agree with most here. To think that a formidable animal such as t-rex would pass up a kill only because it can't scavenge it is ridicilous. It's equally ridicilous that it would walk past a carcass that provides it with food. | |
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