Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Tyrannosaurus - pack hunter?

Options
2»

Comments

  • Options
    #32
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    Kess73 wrote: »
    There is data on nests and clutch sizes of other theropods including one or two of the earlier tyrannosaurids if I am not mistaken, so as I said in the earlier post, that is where any guesstimations on what T-Rex clutches were like will come from imo. Would be pointless to use crocodilians as a comparative species in order to gauge nesting habits and clutch sizes. If I was goung to try and use any modern animals for a loose comparison on that front then I would lean towards modern raptors for a very rough and potentially very tenuous comparison,

    That is why I didn´t mention birds of prey... most of them lay very few eggs, usually two, and all the dinosaur nests I remember reading about had many more eggs...

    But, maybe the eggs were not being laid by a single female? Maybe they were like ostriches and several females would lay their eggs in the same nest for the male to take care of? Not necessarily T-Rex's case, though.


  • Options
    #33
    GWolf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 412 ✭✭GWolf


    Well, clutch size could easily be dependent on whether or not Tyrannosaurus DID engage in pack hunting. If they did, small clutches with slow growing infants would be expected. If not, more rapid growth and larger clutches wouldn't shock. Crocodilians have relatively primitive parenting skills, a lot of babies die, so they need big clutches.

    Given the pretty solid evidence that Albertosaurus was at least gregarious if not an active pack hunter (given what some birds can show in terms of social behaviour eg Arabian babbler, a coherent pack would work for me, although probably more on the lines of a lion pride than wolves) and the fact there have been young rexes found in proximity to adults, as well as some pathological evidence, would suggest at least some temporary social interaction. Maybe it's just coming together to start the chicks off, or given rexes may have taken 12 years to hit reproducing age, maybe the adults actively reared the young until they were of a size that they could fend for themselve, or on the outside (very outside I'll grant but again, some avian examples exist), juveniles remaining with or close to their parents to establish a fully functional, socially ordered group, but I would not be shocked by a discovery of a mass T. rex death assemblage (relatively mass...4 or 5 individuals mass).


  • Options
    #34
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    GWolf wrote: »
    I would not be shocked by a discovery of a mass T. rex death assemblage (relatively mass...4 or 5 individuals mass).

    I thought something like this had already been found in Montana, I believe?


  • Options
    #35
    GWolf
    Closed Accounts Posts: 412 ✭✭GWolf


    Adam Khor wrote: »
    I thought something like this had already been found in Montana, I believe?

    Any link?


  • Options
    #36
    Adam Khor
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 5,279 Mod ✭✭✭✭Adam Khor


    GWolf wrote: »
    Any link?

    No, I saw it in a documentary I believe.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #37
    SvenLittkowski
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4 ✭SvenLittkowski


    Hmm, interesting theory. Let's wait and see, if this gets confirmed...


Advertisement