How large of prey can be subdued by raptor-prey-restraint?
Apr 2, 2020 17:51:59 GMT 5
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Post by Infinity Blade on Apr 2, 2020 17:51:59 GMT 5
Until very recently I thought that the raptor-prey-restraint (RPR, for short) model proposed for dromaeosaurids was only usable against prey items smaller than the dromaeosaurid. But now that I think about it...is it, really?
The RPR model involves the dromaeosaurid leaping onto its prey, pinning it down under its weight and the gripping feet (facilitated by the fact that the largest, strongest, and most curved claw is on the strongest digit), flapping the wings to not lose balance, and...basically eating the prey item alive.
It's easy to see how this would be useful against smaller prey. But what about prey as large as, or even larger, than the predator? I've thought about it, and I've come to a conclusion (correct me if I'm wrong on it): you don't actually need to be more massive than the prey item to somehow bring it down with your weight. That's because, when leaping at an animal to pin it down with their body weight (or even their whole momentum), the predator can concentrate their weight on one specific body part that cannot support all that weight, thereby bringing the animal down.
Although the exact mechanisms of bringing the prey down aren't exactly the same with them, lions use the same principle of concentrating their body weight on one area of the prey item to bring it down. They can use their body weight to drag prey down while grasping the face, something that's been observed with gemsbok and zebra (found here->; scholarly references cited within), animals that can easily be as large as, if not larger, than the lion. Similarly, they've been described coming in at an oblique angle, rearing and throwing a paw at the shoulder or rump of prey, and using its entire weight and strength to pull the prey down (reference->).
This video might show a demonstration of this principle in action (the lioness uses her weight to lower the buffalo's head and neck, which of course can't support the entirety of her weight).
Again, the principles of a dromaeosaurid targeting large prey are not the same (the lion is coming at the prey with its forelimbs, while the dromaeosaurid comes at it with its hindlimbs and possibly forelimbs), but localizing body weight over say, the shoulder, rump, or even the neck and using the full body weight, strength, and momentum (of the predator) to bring it down using the RPR method actually sounds like a viable strategy of bringing down even prey larger than the predator. For some reason I have a feeling that this would actually become increasingly more effective the larger the dromaeosaurid is in absolute body mass (even if the relatively size of the prey is the same); I just feel like it would be proportionately harder to overcome the full body weight of the dromaeosaurid at larger size scales than at smaller scales, but I don't know just how I would explain that in words.
Present your thoughts down below.
© @ Jason Brougham
Photograph from Darren Naish (link->. Image: Parker et al. (2019).
EDIT: none of this even takes into account a potential extension of RPR: prey-riding.
The RPR model involves the dromaeosaurid leaping onto its prey, pinning it down under its weight and the gripping feet (facilitated by the fact that the largest, strongest, and most curved claw is on the strongest digit), flapping the wings to not lose balance, and...basically eating the prey item alive.
It's easy to see how this would be useful against smaller prey. But what about prey as large as, or even larger, than the predator? I've thought about it, and I've come to a conclusion (correct me if I'm wrong on it): you don't actually need to be more massive than the prey item to somehow bring it down with your weight. That's because, when leaping at an animal to pin it down with their body weight (or even their whole momentum), the predator can concentrate their weight on one specific body part that cannot support all that weight, thereby bringing the animal down.
Although the exact mechanisms of bringing the prey down aren't exactly the same with them, lions use the same principle of concentrating their body weight on one area of the prey item to bring it down. They can use their body weight to drag prey down while grasping the face, something that's been observed with gemsbok and zebra (found here->; scholarly references cited within), animals that can easily be as large as, if not larger, than the lion. Similarly, they've been described coming in at an oblique angle, rearing and throwing a paw at the shoulder or rump of prey, and using its entire weight and strength to pull the prey down (reference->).
This video might show a demonstration of this principle in action (the lioness uses her weight to lower the buffalo's head and neck, which of course can't support the entirety of her weight).
Again, the principles of a dromaeosaurid targeting large prey are not the same (the lion is coming at the prey with its forelimbs, while the dromaeosaurid comes at it with its hindlimbs and possibly forelimbs), but localizing body weight over say, the shoulder, rump, or even the neck and using the full body weight, strength, and momentum (of the predator) to bring it down using the RPR method actually sounds like a viable strategy of bringing down even prey larger than the predator. For some reason I have a feeling that this would actually become increasingly more effective the larger the dromaeosaurid is in absolute body mass (even if the relatively size of the prey is the same); I just feel like it would be proportionately harder to overcome the full body weight of the dromaeosaurid at larger size scales than at smaller scales, but I don't know just how I would explain that in words.
Present your thoughts down below.
© @ Jason Brougham
Photograph from Darren Naish (link->. Image: Parker et al. (2019).
EDIT: none of this even takes into account a potential extension of RPR: prey-riding.
