Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!hpda!hpisoa2!hpitg!jhunix!ins_atrh@jhunix
From: ins_atrh@jhunix
Newsgroups: net.bio
Subject: Re: Bipedalism
Message-ID: <2664@jhunix>
Date: Mon, 28-Apr-86 22:31:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: jhunix.2664
Posted: Mon Apr 28 22:31:00 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 11-May-86 16:49:54 EDT
References: <487@bcsaic>
Lines: 32

In article <71@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> beth@sphinx.UUCP (JB) writes:
>My mistake - sorry for the misinformation.  Just out of curiosity,
>what creatures preyed on early Hominids, and how do we know?  Same
>question(s) for Ornithopods.  (Sorry for my ignorance here - I'm
>just a casual reader.)
>-- 
>--JB  ((Just) Beth Christy, U. of Chicago, ..!ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!beth)
>
>  All we learn from history is that we don't learn anything from history.

As with almost all of paleontology, we don't *KNOW* (as in 100% certain)
anything.  However, we can make pretty good guesses:  in the Holocene (that's
"now" for those of you who aren't into geological time) the big cats, wolves,
and similar types prey upon primates (including the occasional humans).  In the
fossil record of the Pliocene and Pleistocene we find the remains of big cats,
wolves, other hunters, and hominids.  By comparative ecology (and using the
tooth marks found on a few hominids) we can make a very good hypothesis that
these creatures ate our ances... er (better make this safe for the Net, Tom :-))
that is, the hominids.

The ornithopods were most certainly hunted by the carnosaurs, the family of
carnivorous dinosaurs that included the tyrannosaurs, megalosaurs, and
similar hunters.  We have found many tooth- and claw-marks on ornithopod
bones, and there are even tracks of ornithopods being chased by theropods
(trivial point:  the classic record of a chase scene, from Texas, I believe,
does not have an ornithopod starring as the prey, but rather a sauropod
[one of the long necked, heavy dinosaurs like "_Brontosaurus_").

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
JHU Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

"If history repeats itself, why is there so much of it?"