Comments on: Tarbosaurus Gangs: What Do We Know?

By: Return to Planet Dinosaur | Dinosaur Tracking

Return to Planet Dinosaur | Dinosaur Tracking — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:53:51 +0000

[...] a near-constant screen presence, and this year we’ve seen plenty of new prehistoric shows of varying quality. In fact, the dinosaur media market has been so saturated lately that sometimes I [...]

By: Dino Gangs: solitary, communal, or cooperative hunting in tyrannosaurs « Pick & Scalpel

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:32:18 +0000

[...] from the folks at Atlantic, the same folks who brought us Darwinius and Predator X (check out Brian Switek’s thoughtful response). My goal is simply to relate what went on here in Athens and to clarify how I think tyrannosaur [...]

By: DKF

DKF — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:05:17 +0000

Good to see you using the blog to push back against some overly-hyped claims. The commercial media will always select the more spectacular of speculations (sort of a news-onomic bias) and then never follow up. It’s a good use of this forum to provide some perspective on issues visited by the press in the superficial way it too often employs in matters of science.

By: JerkyD

JerkyD — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 04:10:22 +0000

@Dan Peterson

Actually, there is evidence for Smilodon being a pack hunter from the La Brea tar pits ( http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/sabertooth-cats-were-social-and-70874.aspx ).

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 20 May 2011 16:20:29 +0000

Dan: “One could make the same grandiose claim that Sabre Toothed Cats hunted in packs due to the large accumulation of their bones together in the La Brea tar pits…”- Never heard that argument before. Seriously, that’s the first time. The evidence i have always heard is the fact that so many of the animals survived crippling injuries that would have hindered their ability to hunt. Since they obviously survived for months or even years afterwards, the thought is that they were being taken care of by other members of the pack.

I remember seeing the Albertosaurus bonebed discussed in an documentary long ago where they discussed the other possibilities. Currey had said that since predators make up only 10% of the population the chances of 12 of them being washed together from around the landscape were too great to be taken seriously. I also remembering him saying that no other dinosaur species were found at the site, making a predator trap unlikely. Obviously more taphonomic research is needed.

By: Dan Peterson

Dan Peterson — Fri, 20 May 2011 14:27:23 +0000

Excellent points Brian. One could make the same grandiose claim that Sabre Toothed Cats hunted in packs due to the large accumulation of their bones together in the La Brea tar pits, but there, of course, the natural trap that lured predator after predator to their doom is completely obvious.

I believe there will be no earthshaking revelation about the Tarbosaur bone bed, or it would have been leaked already. But on the bright side, the notion of “gangs” of huge theropods ravaging the countryside may very well capture the public imagination to such a degree that it may produce a Hollywood film and new line of action figures. After all, we can never have enough dinosaurs.