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Post by creature386 on Apr 16, 2016 3:26:07 GMT 5
That he found a cat jumping and doesn't want to make a guess on how far it might have jumped as he believes his ability to estimate the length of jumps from footage is rather poor.
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Cross
Junior Member
The biggest geek this side of the galaxy. Avatar is Dakotaraptor steini from Saurian.
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Post by Cross on Apr 17, 2016 13:06:56 GMT 5
Habib has explained that he used a certain equation based on modern ratites and felids to calculate the jumping distance of Dakotaraptor. IIRC He also said that it could jump a vertical distance of 2-4 meters with a running start also.
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Post by creature386 on Apr 17, 2016 14:27:50 GMT 5
Is the equation available anywhere?
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Post by theropod on Apr 17, 2016 16:18:49 GMT 5
Hmm, the details would be very interesting. Felids, ratites and dromaeosaurs have some major differences in their respective locomotive systems, so the question is, what does it use as an independant variable, and what does and doesn’t it account for?
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Cross
Junior Member
The biggest geek this side of the galaxy. Avatar is Dakotaraptor steini from Saurian.
Posts: 266
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Post by Cross on Apr 18, 2016 10:25:14 GMT 5
He used a "Long jump algorithm", I'm guessing he made muscle cross-sections first, measured leg to body length, accounted for acceleration, then calculated how much force a Dakoktaraptor could output with its leg musculature while being propelled at speed :
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Post by Infinity Blade on Aug 3, 2016 1:53:40 GMT 5
I have a question about pack hunting in not just dromaeosaurids, but in theropods in general.
Piranhas kill animals larger than themselves in large numbers, right? And I'm pretty sure that they don't work cooperatively like say, modern pack hunting carnivorans do; all the piranhas simply attack the animal until it dies, right?
So if predators can kill larger prey items by simply having all the individuals attack the quarry until it dies, then wouldn't the matter of cognitive abilities for sophisticated teamwork be beside the point in whether or not multiple predatory dinosaurs could viably kill a larger animal?
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Post by Infinity Blade on Aug 3, 2016 6:42:18 GMT 5
Oh, by the way, this doesn't concern the blog posts I originally linked to in the OP, but here's Duane Nash's "Making Dromaeosaurids Nasty Again" series on Antediluvian Salad for anyone who's interested. The firstThe secondThe thirdThe fourth |
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Post by creature386 on Aug 3, 2016 19:55:38 GMT 5
I have a question about pack hunting in not just dromaeosaurids, but in theropods in general. Piranhas kill animals larger than themselves in large numbers, right? And I'm pretty sure that they don't work cooperatively like say, modern pack hunting carnivorans do; all the piranhas simply attack the animal until it dies, right? So if predators can kill larger prey items by simply having all the individuals attack the quarry until it dies, then wouldn't the matter of cognitive abilities for sophisticated teamwork be beside the point in whether or not multiple predatory dinosaurs could viably kill a larger animal? I'm not sure if the analogy is a good one, since it is easier to defend oneself against several opponents if they can't move in three dimensions. And given how much time piranhas spend together, they probably do have some decent social skills. That being said, I definitely do not deny that it is possible to kill larger animals in a pack without having specialized social capacities, but its probably harder that way and would only have been done on occasion when the circumstances favored it. After all, social skills did not develop for no reason. Hence, if it turns out that theropods were indeed not adapted to cooperative hunting (not saying they weren't, just answering the question), they probably hunted in groups as frequently as crocodiles or varanids and not as often as lions or wolves. |
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Post by Infinity Blade on Aug 5, 2016 3:00:41 GMT 5
That's a good point. But I just want to address one small thing here:
This is a bit of an overrated factor IMO. After all, if the event is in water, the prey has the same option of attacking in three dimensions as its assaulters do. On land, the prey is just as restricted as its predators.
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Post by spartan on Aug 5, 2016 19:56:34 GMT 5
Doesn't it simply depend on the numbers? If a prey item is ridiculously outnumbered it doesn't take a lot of teamwork or coordination to kill. Large terrestrial vertebrates generally don't wander around in packs large enough to simply overwhelm formidable prey with sheer numbers as far as I know.
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Post by creature386 on Aug 7, 2016 19:13:01 GMT 5
This is a bit of an overrated factor IMO. After all, if the event is in water, the prey has the same option of attacking in three dimensions as its assaulters do. On land, the prey is just as restricted as its predators. Sure, but overlooking the situation is important when having to deal with multiple opponents and this is harder if they can move more freely. Just think of how much easier it would be to fight multiple opponents in say a very thin corridor where your opponents stand in one row and basically can only attack from one direction than in a battle in the open plains where you may be able to move more freely, but your opponents are everywhere. |
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Post by Infinity Blade on Aug 8, 2016 1:09:27 GMT 5
This is a bit of an overrated factor IMO. After all, if the event is in water, the prey has the same option of attacking in three dimensions as its assaulters do. On land, the prey is just as restricted as its predators. Sure, but overlooking the situation is important when having to deal with multiple opponents and this is harder if they can move more freely. Just think of how much easier it would be to fight multiple opponents in say a very thin corridor where your opponents stand in one row and basically can only attack from one direction than in a battle in the open plains where you may be able to move more freely, but your opponents are everywhere. I don't think this is a very viable comparison. The latter scenario you provided would actually be just like a fight between a hypothetical megaherbivore and a pack of theropods, hence the two scenarios would be just as hard on the party with a single individual (the megaherbivore can move quite freely but the theropods are everywhere). Now what about a marine fight? Well, there would be predators to your sides and even below and above you, but then again, you can move freely like your predators to make things easier (as I said in my previous post). If it is in fact harder to overlook such a situation in a marine setting than in a terrestrial one, I doubt it's to that significant of a degree. Certainly not to the degree between the two scenarios you gave in your analogy. |
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Post by dinosauria101 on May 13, 2019 6:09:16 GMT 5
Yes, I think they do. The ability to leap on to a prey item and slash it to death is a great advantage
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Post by Supercommunist on Mar 21, 2024 8:18:40 GMT 5
Necro but I read the guys most recent blog post and he went on a pretty weird rant on his critique of dinosaur planet.
TBH I wasn't a massive fan either but the guy really come across as a hater and he seems to be guilly of pushing too far back against the "dinosaurs are cool sentiment".
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Post by Infinity Blade on Mar 21, 2024 15:35:53 GMT 5
In retrospect I think he’s just a thinly-veiled mammal/Cenozoic fanboy. I’ve seen a tirade of his where he turns a rant about JW accuracy critics into a rant about dinosaur fanboys, complete with pictures of mammals one-upping dinosaurs/other reptiles. All because he was triggered by a pic of a petrel or something gouging into the eye socket of an elephant seal.
I commented on one of his blog posts where he claims the Mesozoic was all warm as an argument that dinosaurs might not have been able to adapt to the ice age or something. I literally posted a paper showing that the Mesozoic had some icy periods, and he was all “it’s just one paper”. He was trying to hold onto an old, simplified view of the Mesozoic just so he could sleep better at night.
EDIT: I don’t like to be an ass when it comes to discourse that should be professional, but even Darren Naish called him a “hateful idiot without a point to make” (and from what I remember of ACCPaleo, I fully agree). I follow Darren Naish and occasionally speak to him on Twitter, and I’ve read a bunch of his Tet Zoo posts; he is rarely ever this harsh when talking about anyone (the closest I can think of is when he talks about David Peters these days). You know something’s wrong with this guy if even well-respected paleontologists can call him out for what he is.
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