Re: [dinosaur] Did Mapusaurus packs hunt adult Argentinosaurs?

R-strategist species generally have more juveniles about than large adults, in expectation of high juvenile 
predation rates. It would seem to be unlikely that a large theropod ever found itself in a position where it 
had no choice but to tackle only very large adult sauropods. Snack-sized alternatives would usually be on 
offer.

Except perhaps if long-lasting catastrophic climatic events prevented sauropods from reproducing for 
many years in a row. Even then you might expect high mortality amongst adult sauropods as well, 
providing a scavenging bounty that might preclude the need to tackle live adults.

--
Dann Pigdon


On Fri, Oct 4th, 2019 at 1:17 AM, Mike Taylor <[email protected]> wrote:

> Unlikely but not impossible. In modern ecosystems, it's very rare for
> predators to routinely take on prey much larger than themselves. Foxes
> mostly take smaller animals like rodents and birds; Lions, which hunt in
> pack, mostly take animals like zebra that are about the same size as them.
> After all, why WOULD a lion risk injury or death by participating in an
> elephant hunt if there are antelope available? For the same reasons,
> carcharadontids would certainly have preferred smaller prey when it was
> available — which would have been almost always.
> 
> That said, there are rare occasions when packs of lions, starved of easier
> food, will collaborate to take down an elephant, despite the very real
> danger. It's possible that starved carcharadontids, if they couldn't find
> other prey animals, might become desperate enough to risk taking on a fully
> grown titanosaur. But I certainly can't see them specialising in such a
> hazardous lifestyle.
> 
> -- Mike.
> 
> 
> On Thu, 3 Oct 2019 at 16:13, Poekilopleuron <[email protected]>
> wrote:
> 
> > Good day,
> >
> > I would like to know your opinion about this hypothesis. Since they were
> > contemporanious, could packs of very large carcharodontosaurids (_M.
> > roseae_) specialize in active hunt of large (even adult?) _A.
> > huinculensis_? What would be their chance to kill such a large prey
> animal?
> > Thank you in advance! Tom
> >