First Fossil Evidence That Velociraptors Hunted in Packs 169
Ponca City, We Love You writes "The New Scientist reports that palaeontologists have excavated a fossil trackway in Shandong Province in China 100 to 120 million years old that contains footprints left by six Dromeosaurs, the more formal name for raptors, showing evidence of group behavior. Up until now, the popular stereotype from Jurassic Park of raptors hunting in packs has had no fossil evidence to back it up. The paths of the six 90 kilo raptors do not overlap where the animals walked alongside a river or stream. '"The odds of these tracks being made by different individuals that just happen to be moving in the same direction, without their tracks stepping on one another, are small," said Jerry D. Harris, director of paleontology at Dixie State College. "Groups that do that usually have relatively sophisticated behavior, and they're relatively intelligent," Harris added. "By moving together in groups, it's entirely possible that they hunted in groups."'"
Fossil evidence? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Fossil evidence? (Score:5, Funny)
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I bet that you're one of those people who insists on acknowledging Highlander 2...
Damn, Dude. That was harsh
Re:Fossil evidence? (Score:5, Funny)
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I for one (pun intended) would rather acknowledge Highlander 2 than the latest atrocity known as Highlander: The Source. Lets all just agree that the series was far superior to the movies and leave it at that.
Well, the whole Highlander universe has it's problems. There's never been a trouble-free outing, not even the first movie. I suppose it's just the nerd in me but the rules are arbitrary enough to make me really want to start questioning them. It's kind of like with Gremlins, can't eat after midnight? So when does cease being "after midnight" and "the new day" so the critter can eat again? If it can't get wet, how does it hydrate? Does it have to be liquid water or will high humidity cause it to reproduce?
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You're missing the fact that the girl, like most of the characters in the movie, is actually a superhero.
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XKCD (Score:2, Funny)
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Wrong you are, limey twit (Score:2)
Considering it was before the 1707 Act of Union (or whatever that treaty was that "united" England and Scotland),
they may have been English packs (probably rugby hooligans) but they were not British packs.
Well, I am American, so I've probably got redcoat history wrong too. But they weren't British packs.
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Quite correct -ish.
Since Britain refers to the island also, they could still be British Packs. But judging by their behavior I'd suggest Scots or Irish in all likelihood.
(before any nationalists switch flam
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A grateful nation thanks you.
Run, Randall, Run! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Run, Randall, Run! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Run, Randall, Run! (Score:5, Funny)
One little GOTO (Score:4, Funny)
And this one as well [xkcd.com].
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dino baby [pbfcomics.com]
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Finding the best path (Score:2)
The way I understand the question the raptor is always running at you. So the question is what path has the longest run until the raptor hits you.
Still seems hard. Not sure how I would set it up. Didn't do a lot of CofV in my university days, and none after it.
Duh? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Duh? (Score:4, Funny)
Duh.
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Today, we call the lizards.
Dude, it's not planted (Score:4, Funny)
But you know how that ends up working. You tweak a little here, a little there, and next thing you know they're whining that you've nerfed them to death and start cancelling their subscriptions in droves.
So, you know, cut Him some slack. What do you expect Him to do? Hide that they ever existed? Like that ever works. Try deleting just a post or two on a board and you end up with a whole rebellion on your hand. Try denying that the game ever had dinosaurs? Ooer... noone does... ermm...
Well, OK, so Sony's propaganda machine does try to present the new animal breeding on SWG like some revolutionary new feature, and not, say, like they had animal handlers in the first place and they removed them.
But I figure God is better than Sony, you know? (Ok, ok, so that's not hard to achieve;) He's not affraid to admit that some things weren't that well balanced in the first place and had to be changed.
Of Course it's Planted (Score:2)
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They walked in packs (Score:2)
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Re:They walked in packs (Score:5, Funny)
Blasphemy!! (Score:4, Funny)
6000 (Score:2, Funny)
pack hunters? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:pack hunters? (Score:5, Funny)
I can identify with that.
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Um, sorry... I mean, devolved.
Artisan Tracker (Score:3, Insightful)
I am getting a picture of very clean cut, tall, dainty and somewhat immortal lithe man (with bow strapped across back, of course) darting back and forth across the plain. He sniffs here, looks there, describing what the signs indicate happened (all while you're seeing flashbacks to millions of years ago where the pack of raptors were hauling tail across the terrain with two little midget dinos tied to a couple raptors' backs because some dark T-Rex said "don't eat them".
That's some tracker...
Great News (Score:5, Funny)
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Now all we need to find is some evidence of raptors being able to open up doors, and we'll have proof that Hollywood knows more about Dinosaurs than Science.
Eh, Hollywood sucks, but who is to say that they WOULDN'T have been able to figure out how to open a door, given the right motivation? My dog can open doors. Ever watch squirrels figure out "squirrel-proof" bird feeders? Ever seen a cat that was toilet trained?
Granted, the mammalian brain has tens of millions of years of evolution over the dinos, but who is to say what they would have been capable of? Imagine if we actually were able to somehow obtain an intact DNA strand, clone them and observe the
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Every time the scene where they first see the dinos roaming about is shown, all I think is, "I'd give my entire life savings to visit such a place." I almost cry thinking about how cool it would be to walk with dinosaurs (present day birds, alligators, komodo dragons and other such creatures excluded).
So yes, in my case I would do everything both within and outside my power to see such a place. Not a zo
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But let's look at the modern world. You know you can take a safari and get to within meters of apex predators without being attack
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Yes, but that's due to my fingers still being on the end of my intact hands and arms because I don't go swimming in shark-infested waters.
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That's because, over the time that humans have been on the Earth, the animals that haven't been leery of humans have been hunted down by humans, exerting considerable selective pressure.
Dinosaurs that magically (i.e., through sufficiently-advanced technology) reappeared would not, presumably, have
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would probably eat or attack humans without hesitation.
I dunno. It really doesn't take that many shock events for an animal (even a "dumb" one) to learn. Would I want to go up against a T-Rex with a cattle-prod? Hell no! But why would you be any more afraid of one in a controlled setting then you would be afraid of a tiger or lion in the same setting? Either one can kill you if it catches you without weapons or technology.
Most predators also won't bother to hunt if they aren't hungry -- it's a waste of energy -- they never did explain (in either the b
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There's a couple of possibilities that immediately spring to mind: they weren't all that well-fed to start out with, either so that the savage feeding displays would be more impressive, or because they just hadn't worked out the right feeding yet; or the carnivores were (to
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Sheesh. Lay off the dope, hippie.
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If by motivation you mean claws you could fillet a buffalo with, then probably they could, at least with most of the doors I see.
Granted, the mammalian brain has tens of millions of years of evolution over the dinos,
The dinosaurs had no need for a large brain, they were the dominant species, most of them were big, there was food, water, it was warm, and they either ate each
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We only got them because we were being stomped on, chased, mauled and eaten by almost anything else alive
And amazingly enough we survived in spite of all the disadvantages that our large brains bring. Like the complications of childbirth. How many other animals have birthing problems like we do? Or the fact that our young are completely helpless at birth, which while not exactly rare in the animal kingdom (common among mammals) is hardly an advantage.
but how many truly smart top predators are there?
Eh, off the top of my head, orcas [wikipedia.org] and wolves [wikipedia.org] both stand out as apex predators that are fairly intelligent. I could probably throw human beings onto tha
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I thought of the wolves thing myself, but actually their smart in their domain, but not able to think outside of, for want of a better term, the box. A lone wolf is usually not at all that efficient in the wild.
Orca's? Well those be whales, and whales have large brains, but not, I seem to recall, that large for their body size. I'm not yet convinced as to the intelligence of whales. Not that I therefore
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That doesn't mean they aren't smart creatures though. That just means they are social creatures that do better in packs. How well do human beings cope with extended solitude? All /. relationship jokes aside, think about it. Why else would solitary confinement be considered punishment and extended solitary cruel and unusual?
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Here's one distinct case of how brains can confer predatory advantage.. Marsupial tigers had a much stronger bite than the modern placental counterpart. Sabretoothed cats had their famous large canines. However, the modern large cat
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Those were for biting at the throat and severing veins only, if they hit bone they were very likely to break, and they weren't for tearing chunks out either, that might break them too. It was a choke or bleed to death thing, not a savage rip the throat out affair. Their strategy was apparently much the same as modern cats, with the requirement for sabre teeth being brought about because their prey was big, and thus had large necks to get through.
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Raptors can open doors, but they are slowed by them. They take 5 minutes to open the first door and half the time for each subsequent door. Remember, raptors run at 10m/s and they do not know fear.
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No proof of hunting (Score:2)
Amway (Score:2)
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This is rediculous. Have you ever tried to play 3on3 without anybody's paths crossing?
For that matter, what are the chances that six raptors with beers would be able to walk a straight line?
You clearly need to put more thought into your hypotheses before you present them. Now go and completely rewrite this paper.
Why not? (Score:2)
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Dr. Grant was right! (Score:4, Insightful)
"
Re:Dr. Grant was right! (Score:5, Insightful)
I've always said that we mammals don't really have it that bad. Yeah, being eaten by a lion probably sucks, but at least he makes a halfway clean kill (closes the airway or bites into an artery and you bleed out) before him and his buds start to eat you.
Go a little lower on the chain then mammals and you'll find out just how much of a raving bitch mother nature truly is. The lion doesn't cripple you, lay his eggs inside you, to eventually hatch and consume you from the inside out while your are still alive. The lion doesn't dissolve your insides and suck them out while you lay there paralyzed from his venom.
Wow, I'm glad I'm on the top of the food chain.......
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Understatement of the week.......
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Dr. Zoidberg: What are we going to do there?
Hermes Conrad: Nothing. Just walk around not wearing a helmet.
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It's a trick. Get an Axe.
It was just ONE Velociraptor.. (Score:5, Funny)
Additional evidence (Score:4, Funny)
Wow, they must really be smart. They travel single-file, to conceal their number.
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yes, they hunt in packs (Score:2)
Let's find out (Score:2)
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Obligatory. (Score:2, Funny)
Best place to see dinosaur skeletons in Bay Area? (Score:2)
Re:Best place to see dinosaur skeletons in Bay Are (Score:2)
Re:Best place to see dinosaur skeletons in Bay Are (Score:3, Funny)
No need to travel to a new place. Simply travel back in time 100 million years.
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that is not news... (Score:5, Funny)
You call that a headline? (Score:2, Funny)
Book of Daniel: Bell the Dragon (Score:3, Interesting)
1:23 Now there was a large dragon, and the Babylonians used to revere it. 1:24 The king said to Daniel, "Surely you can't claim that this is not a living god. So worship it!" But Daniel replied, "I will worship the Lord my God alone, for he is the living God. 1:26 But, O king, if you will grant me authority I will put the dragon to death using neither sword nor staff." The king replied, "I grant you authority."
Most
Military formation (Score:3, Funny)
It goes way beyond that. This proves that they were marching 6 abreast. If some were walking behind the others, the footprints would still have overlapped. The theory of caveman dinosaur cavalry formations has never had any fossil evidence ... until now!
Lions hunt in packs (Score:2)
... and can we get one thing clear ? (Score:2, Informative)
Velociraptors were smaller, and had longer, crocodile like jaws.
This has been annoying the crap out of me since Jurrasic Park first came out.
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A small group of people gets cut off from society in dangerous circumstances. They get picked off one by one until a very few remaining people prevent the big disaster. (...or so they thought, if a sequel is in the offing)
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First, it wasn't a movie that "got things right", it was a book that the movie happened to be loosely based on.
Second, no one these days is really doubting that Velociraptor is a small chicken sized scavenger that lived in Asia, not a human sized predator that lived in North America. Crichton's book was more likely about a different dinosaur, the Deinonychus, which for a brief period of time (which happened to be while he was writing his book) was classified by some to be a type of Velociraptor. That c