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An anonymous reader writes "A new press release about Tyrannosaurus Rex shows that they lived fast and died young. Growing at 2kg per day for up to 10 years. Links to summaries on BBC and CNN."
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Lions are quite adept scavengers. They make relatively few large kills themselves (especailly lone males), but pretty much have their pick of kills from other large cats, hyenas, and wild dogs. Hyenas, on the other hand, despite common belief, are the truely fearsome hunters of the region. They have one of the higest success rates in hunting of any carnivore. So do the African wild dogs for that matter. Neither one, however, is very good at keeping their kills when a pride of lions happens by. Cheetahs have the same problem. They're very good at catching their own prey, but very bad at keeping it. Leopards particularly will steal their kills at every turn.
Re:predator vs. scavenger solved? (Score:3, Informative)
Species lifespan not that linked to metabolism (Score:3, Informative)
A species "natural" lifespan appears to be more linked to how likely a creature is to die of reasons other than old age.
It is unlikely you'd evolve a body that'll last 200 years when you're likely to be eaten by the time you're 5 years old, or have a fatal accident.
That's the current theory why rats don't live for very long whereas bats do (up to 30 years for some bats).
Compare the lifespan of tortoises vs snakes. And compare the types of snakes too.
The creatures likely to be eaten or stomped to death at an early age aren't likely to live that long even if you keep them in optimal conditions.