Posted on 07/31/2013 1:34:41 AM PDT by imardmd1
Was Tyrannosaurus rex a predator or scavenger? The question has been a point of controversy in the scientific community for more than a century.
"You see 'Jurassic Park,' and you see T. rex as this massive hunter and killer, as incredibly vicious. But scientists have argued for 100 years that he was too big and too slow to hunt prey and that he was probably a scavenger, an animal that feeds only on dead things," University of Kansas paleontologist David Burnham said.
Burnham and researcher Robert DePalma got what Burnham described as his "lucky break" when they found the fossil of a duckbill dinosaur's tail with a tooth in it.
"The features of the tooth are like fingerprints, and we were able to identify it as T. rex," he said.
They took the fossil to be analyzed at the University of Kansas and for a CT scan at the local hospital, where the doctor told them, "It's too late for your patient."
But Burnham was thrilled at what the fossilized bones told him about the life of the duckbill.
"We were giddy like schoolkids," he said. "This now returns T. rex as a predator. So the monsters that we see in dinosaurs are real. They did go chasing after things, kill them and eat them. They actively pursued live prey."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
So, if lions and tigers and bears lived at that time, along and together with predator aquatic mammals such as seals, killer whales along with fish like sharks and gar were all vegetarians and didn’t hunt and eat meat? You are going to believe that because some unknown person told that story , was passed down for generations and then someone wrote a book about it and now you swear it must be true? Yeah right, tell me how scientific that is.
Horses and cows have teeth more like mine. They eat grass. but cows and cats have deep-rooted teeth.
Apparently the TR does not, from what I've heard. And the TR's are more like a razor blade. According to the dentist Martin, they are sharp and shaped perfectly for stripping leaves from trees, or cutting through very broad-leaved plant membranes.
Maybe they are just good for cutting off and swallowing flowers! (smile).
If someone told me: Prove those teeth were only good for what these paleontologists claim, only a predator (live flesh, limbs, tough), or a scavenger (rotted flesh, soft, mushy), both carnivores -- I wouldn't be able to do it with what I now know. I couldn't even say authoritatively that TRs are not herbivores, as the Bible claims all the first moving creatures were--fish, too, like carp, I suppose.
Scripturally, no death to start. Capisce?
There aren’t many of those you have mentioned that couldn’t eat Purina Chow-type kibble, eh? Youse gotta have Faith, man!
You did thanks.I started to think that was what you mean whilst reading other comments.Oh well,at the very least I validated my credentials.
Don't worry about the massive kangaroos,Skippy's on our side,he's a brainiac and will outwit them.(he once disarmed a nuke)
This, to me, is a specious argument - sounds good, but how does that compare to the teeth of what we used to call a brontosaurus that was 100% herbivore? Another thing that I think is a great comparator is body mass and shape.
It would seem to me that a herbivore would require a rather sizeable 'digestion' engine for all those 'leaves' - big stomach, large intestinal tract, etc. I can see this in the erstwhile Brontosaur, but I fail to see it in a T-Rex. Likewise, I don't see the long neck and tree-top reach, nor do I see the same forefeet to support the massive "digestion" system. Instead, two little vestigial arms with claws that are, at best, usable in manipulating a kill in preparation for eating.
Sorry, but I just don't buy the sharp toothed herbivore argument at all.
With brotherly care, in your service --
You know, I've found that my only really dumb question is the one I don't ask and should --
Actually, it doesn't even sound good. Pointed, triangular teeth are good for puncturing and slicing. Flat, blunt teeth are good for stripping and grinding foliage. For slicing through broadleaf plants, you want straight-edged incisors.
I was giving the cited Dentist some benefit of doubt. I do not believe his explanation and conclusion one bit.
True dat.
Not to hijack the thread but I found it strange that no one in church would ask any hard questions.I started thinking (rightly or wrongly)that maybe folks are scared there aren't really any good answers.When I first began to have an inkling that there might actually be some sort of treasure in that field the hard questions were a nagging choir.
So,having that inkling,we dig.
ping to the joy-boy that God had hand me a shovel.8-)
Occam's razor states that the explanation that requires the fewest assumptions is most probably correct-the simplest explanation IOW. A mouthful of exceptionally large, sharp pointed serrated shedable teeth most simply describes an animal that kills other animals and then eats them or that finds them dead and then eats them or both. In today's animal kingdom, we need only look at the great white shark to gain an idea as to the dietary habits of the T. rex. The great white shark is a modern apex predator that will also not decline to eat carrion should the opportunity to do so arise.
Furthermore, fossilized duckbill bones have been found in fossilized T. rex scat.
ping to the joy-boy that God had hand me a shovel.8-)
Tis’ better than what we used to shovel LOL
Why couldn’t it have been both? I’ve never understood the controversy. Look a today’s animals. The lion is a predator but has been known to scavenge. The hyena is a scavenger but has been known to kill. How many of our carnivores aren’t opportunistic – other than snakes?
It's pretty simple and easy to understand. There is the world's system, and the Bible system.
Both are faith-based systems.
Either by death came man (the world's system), or by man came death (God's system as reported in the Bible).
Carnivores live by death of another moving creature. Herbivores do not.
According to the Bible, until Noah's flood, all moving creatures were herbivores, but the world's system rejects this concept.
The world's system and God's system are incompatible.
That's the controversy.
Your choice.
(1) I'd like the article. (2) That does not prove that the diet regime started that way. (3) Occam's razor is probablistic and can fail. It is not proof of anything.
But, here we go, and I don't want to follow it. Your system and mine, about origins, are incompatible. They cannot be blended. Trying to do so only produces endless debate. At this point in time, there are no logical winners.
Sorry, I misunderstood your point. Yes, the paleologists pushed their conclusions way beyond their evidence, As you say, it could have been both. But it also could have been neither. Unless one has observed the species in its habitat for a long time, proposing mutually exclusive solutions seems senseless. Humans eat Limburger cheese and ramps (smelly wild leeks). What does that prove?
The fact remains, he dove into the billabong.
AND his voice can still be heard.
How to get more bang outta your jumbuck —
But you need to approach with an open mind, like the Bereans, who were more noble than the Thessalonikans (Acts 17:11).
I do not personally, believe the explanation of the paleontologists because of the closing of their minds. In fact, the T. R. did not bite effectively. The "scientists" explanation required a leap of faith, not an array of fact.
You have me confused with someone who makes the great leap that dinosaurs have something to do with evolution or creation. I was merely pointing out that I think the Dentists’ theory was BS.
I don’t need a bible, nor do I have to listen one lone Dentist’s conjecture about a whole species by examining a single set of bonds.
Religion has nothing to do with. And as far as that “T.R. did not bite effectively” stuff, I don’t believe that either - it is not “in fact” anything just because you say so..
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