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Tyrannosaurus Rex - Hunter or Scavenger?
Topic Started: Jul 15 2012, 10:00 AM (12,440 Views)
DinosaurMichael
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Apex Predator
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So I just finished watching Valley of the T-Rex and though I accept Jack Horner's opinion about T-Rex being just a scavenger. I still think T-Rex was both a Predator and a Scavenger.



So what do you guys think T-Rex is in your opinion. A Hunter, Scavenger or Both?
Edited by DinosaurMichael, Jul 16 2012, 12:59 AM.
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theropod
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Those aren´t a more difficult prey tough. You should write while tyrannosaurs mainly hunted things like Hadrosaurs, Ceratopsians, Pachycephalosaurs, and Ankylosaurs, carnosaurs had to handle iguanodonts and Sauropods. imo T rex is the one with the easier prey here, not carnosaurs. Hadrosaurs and Pachycephalosaurs are easy prey if you can catch them, even easier than iguanodonts, and ceratopsians and ankylosaurs are tough, but with the right adaptions not a harder prey than a sauropod.
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Godzillasaurus
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Oaglor
Jul 21 2012, 01:03 PM
But you also have to remember that Tyrannosaurs and Carnosaurs hunted different kinds of prey. While the Carnosaurs, such as Giganotosaurus, mainly hunted things like Iguanodonts and Sauropods while Tyrannosaurs had to handle Hadrosaurs, Ceratopsians, Pachycephalosaurs, and Ankylosaurs.
Yea but the evidence is all out there. Tyrannosaurs had tiny arms, thick teeth, heavily-built skulls, and powerful bite forces. Many carnosaurs had stronger arms with larger claws, thinner teeth (better for killing), skulls that weren't built for huge force, and smaller bite forces. Though t-rex was surely big and strong enough to hunt, it just wasn't as skilled at killing as carnosaurs.
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7Alx
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What's about Albertosaurus or Gorgosaurus?
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Admantus
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They lived millions of years before t.rex even existed.

And has anybody heard that ceratopsians might have been omnivores? They could have been scavengers.
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theropod
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yeah, there are some reconstructions that show them this way. I guess it can´t be debunked.

T rex was the only large terrestrial carnivore of it´s time and habitat, it won´t primarily be a scavenger, tough it has some features that allowed it to do so. I think it would have hunted itself most of the time, but of course it´s excellent sense of small couls have been useful to find both prey and carcasses. BTW there already is a north American animal from that time that could have been a pure scavenger; Quetzalcoatlus.
Edited by theropod, Jul 22 2012, 01:14 AM.
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Fist of the North Shrimp
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BTW what do you guys think about the niche of Abelisaurids? I speculate, that at least the narrow skulled forms( becasuse their skulls were not mad eto withstand high forces, gotta search for more info on that to show what I mean) were specialized hunters of small ( less than a ton), fast prey.
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7Alx
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Admantus
Jul 22 2012, 12:12 AM
They lived millions of years before t.rex even existed.

I know.


Quote:
 
And has anybody heard that ceratopsians might have been omnivores? They could have been scavengers.


I still think ceratopsians are mostly herbivore, but maybe sometimes they could eat dead bodies as option.
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Meg_Man
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Here;

"Identifying tradeoffs between hunting and scavenging in an ecological context is important for understanding predatory guilds. In the past century, the feeding strategy of one of the largest and best-known terrestrial carnivores, Tyrannosaurus rex, has been the subject of much debate: was it an active predator or an obligate scavenger? Here we look at the feasibility of an adult T. rex being an obligate scavenger in the environmental conditions of Late Cretaceous North America, given the size distributions of sympatric herbivorous dinosaurs and likely competition with more abundant small-bodied theropods. We predict that nearly 50 per cent of herbivores would have been within a 55–85 kg range, and calculate based on expected encounter rates that carcasses from these individuals would have been quickly consumed by smaller theropods. Larger carcasses would have been very rare and heavily competed for, making them an unreliable food source. The potential carcass search rates of smaller theropods are predicted to be 14–60 times that of an adult T. rex. Our results suggest that T. rex and other extremely large carnivorous dinosaurs would have been unable to compete as obligate scavengers and would have primarily hunted large vertebrate prey, similar to many large mammalian carnivores in modern-day ecosystems." (Carbone et al., 2012)

Source: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/278/1718/2682.short

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I believe that this study is good enough to put an end to this debate.
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ArachnidKid
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It would make sense if it scavenged more often IMO,Save's energy along with its well being! no injuries when you scare off another for your meal,However when the carcasses weren't sufficient to quench its hunger it would be very capable of taking down herbivores in its habitat lol
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Oaglor
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Godzillaman
Jul 21 2012, 11:21 PM
Oaglor
Jul 21 2012, 01:03 PM
But you also have to remember that Tyrannosaurs and Carnosaurs hunted different kinds of prey. While the Carnosaurs, such as Giganotosaurus, mainly hunted things like Iguanodonts and Sauropods while Tyrannosaurs had to handle Hadrosaurs, Ceratopsians, Pachycephalosaurs, and Ankylosaurs.
Yea but the evidence is all out there. Tyrannosaurs had tiny arms, thick teeth, heavily-built skulls, and powerful bite forces. Many carnosaurs had stronger arms with larger claws, thinner teeth (better for killing), skulls that weren't built for huge force, and smaller bite forces. Though t-rex was surely big and strong enough to hunt, it just wasn't as skilled at killing as carnosaurs.
T. rex also had forward facing eyes which is a trait most often found in predators. In fact the tyrannosaur lineage had a history of improving binocular vision which would not be an adaptation that scavengers would necessarily need.
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Godzillasaurus
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Oaglor
Jul 22 2012, 08:56 AM
Godzillaman
Jul 21 2012, 11:21 PM
Oaglor
Jul 21 2012, 01:03 PM
But you also have to remember that Tyrannosaurs and Carnosaurs hunted different kinds of prey. While the Carnosaurs, such as Giganotosaurus, mainly hunted things like Iguanodonts and Sauropods while Tyrannosaurs had to handle Hadrosaurs, Ceratopsians, Pachycephalosaurs, and Ankylosaurs.
Yea but the evidence is all out there. Tyrannosaurs had tiny arms, thick teeth, heavily-built skulls, and powerful bite forces. Many carnosaurs had stronger arms with larger claws, thinner teeth (better for killing), skulls that weren't built for huge force, and smaller bite forces. Though t-rex was surely big and strong enough to hunt, it just wasn't as skilled at killing as carnosaurs.
T. rex also had forward facing eyes which is a trait most often found in predators. In fact the tyrannosaur lineage had a history of improving binocular vision which would not be an adaptation that scavengers would necessarily need.
Vultures have binocular vision as well. They are mainly scavengers. Binocular vision is common among carnivores, not solely predators.
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Deleted User
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Just like any other Predator
Rex would have prefered easy meat above hard won meat anyday trying to downrate the Rex by coming with socalled evidence that it mainly hunted baby Dinos or stoled alot is just downright pathetic !!
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tyrannotitan
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Both but more of a scavenger.
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Temnospondyl
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T-rex is an opportunist
Opportunist = both, but... 90% scavanging and stealing other's kills, 10% hunting
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Verdugo
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coelophysid
Sep 9 2012, 07:20 PM
T-rex is an opportunist
Opportunist = both, but... 90% scavanging and stealing other's kills, 10% hunting
Another f*ckin retarded T rex hater
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