![]() ![]() Interestingly, the tyrannosaurid with the most support for cooperative hunting is Albertosaurus, which was one of the tyrannosaurids that remained dedicated pursuit hunters even into adulthood. Adult Tyrannosaurus being the extreme example of this. They did still keep some of the running adaptations found in tyrannosaurids as a whole, such as the foot structure (specifically the arctometatarsus), but they increasingly became bulkier and shorter-legged (at least as adults), moving away from specialized pursuit hunting and more towards the role of an ambush predator that still had some pursuit-hunting capability left. Third, while tyrannosaurids started out as dedicated pursuit predators and many of them remained so, things start to vary when you come to the tyrannosaurine tyrannosaurids. (The same also applies for other groups of theropods, such as the carcharodontosaurids, where we have some support for one or two taxa being social but not across the group as a whole). For Tyrannosaurus specifically we don’t have any evidence for social behaviours in the way we do for some of its smaller relatives. We do have some support for the notion that a few tyrannosaurids were social, at least some of the time that does not mean all the others were similar in social behaviour. Second, to argue tyrannosaurs as a whole were pack hunters ignores that social behaviours even between closely related animals vary massively. None of them were actually any better or more efficient at killing their respective prey than the rest. Tyrannosaurids were specialized apex predators good at specific tasks related to predation and not so good at others other large predatory theropods likewise had their own strengths and weaknesses. To start off with, the whole tone of that study’s conclusion (hyping up tyrannosaurids while implying other large theropods were “inferior”) is….no just no. Some palaeontologists are saying they were distance chasers, maybe most. So I'm not sure if there is disagreement amount palaeontologists or if most/all agree that Tyrannosaurs were distance chasers. Not sure, but the wolf comparison makes me think it's the second option. Then after a while when the prey is tired, the Tyrannosaur does a burst. Or it could mean that the Tyrannosaur is stalking by chasing the prey for a long distance, not at top speed. That sounds like ambush with the Tyrannosaur is doing a long distance stalk without the prey knowing it's being stalked. I'm not 100% sure, but I think wolves hunt long distance. We find that their anatomy, at once efficient and elegant, yet also capable of burst of incredible violence and brute force, lives up to their monikers as the tyrant kings and queens, of the dinosaurs." This further reinforces the notion, that beyond being the apex predator of the latest Cretaceous Laurasian ecosystems, the tyrannosaurids were amongst the most accomplished hunters amongst large bodied theropods. "design of the Tyrannosauridae hindlimb reflect a likely long-distance stalker with a final burst to the kill likely in a pack or family unit, similar to modern wolves. They talk mostly about walking and never say the words 'long distance running'. The wording is a little confusing in the conclusion. ![]() Rex more efficient at traversing distances. Rex run fast, but instead the same traits made adult T. They describe how the traits that helped young T. Nowadays it's thought to have been slower.Īnd here is a paper describing how Tyrannosaurs were efficient and walking long distances, which saved energy when forging for food: Note, the speed estimate here is outdated. Had a discussion with someone that it's possible that ambushing was better for certain prey.Īnd yeah, they were probably insurance hunters. I don't think they couldn't ambush, but it was probably not their primary hunting strategy. They weren't fast but neither was their prey.
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