They could look you in the eye with those forward facing eyes. They were dealing with heavily armored dinos with deadly spiked and clubbed weapons during the Late Cretaceous Period (67-65 million years ago). They had depth perception. T-Rex's teeth were for stabbing, crushing and tearing with a sideways motion.
Rewind about 100 million years to the late Jurassic period and you have the Allosaurus and a little later the Giganotosaurus who may have even been larger that T-Rex but lighter in build. Their eyes are more set on the side. They had those big long-necked dinos to deal with and thus they have slicing teeth like sharks.
I bet the battles were still epic
(https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/ae34ad19-611e-40d4-868f-1a1a958af63f/dbna96r-b543111a-cd24-46ee-a7ed-27451f627679.jpg/v1/fill/w_1371,h_583,q_70,strp/allosaurus_and_juvenile_brontosaurus_by_paleoguy_dbna96r-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3siaGVpZ2h0IjoiPD04NTEiLCJwYXRoIjoiXC9mXC9hZTM0YWQxOS02MTFlLTQwZDQtODY4Zi0xYTFhOTU4YWY2M2ZcL2RibmE5NnItYjU0MzExMWEtY2QyNC00NmVlLWE3ZWQtMjc0NTFmNjI3Njc5LmpwZyIsIndpZHRoIjoiPD0yMDAwIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmltYWdlLm9wZXJhdGlvbnMiXX0.S0YtuOk2oHFFmdODvMENd9AwrbIuPkixNtJI1DWKRx8)
but a T-rex going against an Ankylosaurus...wow
(https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/005/608/749/medium/brx-fraunfelter-t-rex-vs-ankylosaurus.jpg?1492434386)
Quote from: Cassia on April 27, 2021, 07:51:16 PM
They could look you in the eye with those forward facing eyes. They were dealing with heavily armored dinos with deadly spiked and clubbed weapons during the Late Cretaceous Period (67-65 million years ago). They had depth perception. T-Rex's teeth were for stabbing, crushing and tearing with a sideways motion.
Rewind about 100 million years to the late Jurassic period and you have the Allosaurus and a little later the Giganotosaurus who may have even been larger that T-Rex but lighter in build. Their eyes are more set on the side. They had those big long-necked dinos to deal with and thus they have slicing teeth like sharks.
I bet the battles were still epic
(https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/ae34ad19-611e-40d4-868f-1a1a958af63f/dbna96r-b543111a-cd24-46ee-a7ed-27451f627679.jpg/v1/fill/w_1371,h_583,q_70,strp/allosaurus_and_juvenile_brontosaurus_by_paleoguy_dbna96r-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3siaGVpZ2h0IjoiPD04NTEiLCJwYXRoIjoiXC9mXC9hZTM0YWQxOS02MTFlLTQwZDQtODY4Zi0xYTFhOTU4YWY2M2ZcL2RibmE5NnItYjU0MzExMWEtY2QyNC00NmVlLWE3ZWQtMjc0NTFmNjI3Njc5LmpwZyIsIndpZHRoIjoiPD0yMDAwIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmltYWdlLm9wZXJhdGlvbnMiXX0.S0YtuOk2oHFFmdODvMENd9AwrbIuPkixNtJI1DWKRx8)
but a T-rex going against an Ankylosaurus...wow
(https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/005/608/749/medium/brx-fraunfelter-t-rex-vs-ankylosaurus.jpg?1492434386)
I bet it was hard for the ancient people to stay away from those guys!!
They also likely had an efficient, rhythmic gait (https://phys.org/news/2021-04-dinosaur-biomechanical-tyrannosaurus-rex-gait.html) (it's almost hypnotic! )
While they likely weren't super fast (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrannosaurus#Posture) (sprinting at <25 mph, normal walking at <11 mph), they could pivot quickly and absolutely could devour weakened or slowed prey, and it's possible they even hunted in small packs.
Quote from: Mike Cl on April 27, 2021, 08:05:10 PMI bet it was hard for the ancient people to stay away from those guys!!
Fred Flintstone definitely doesn't want to be locked out of the house when one of those maw-with-legs is in the area!
Quote from: Hydra009 on April 27, 2021, 08:11:51 PM
Fred Flintstone definitely doesn't want to be locked out of the house when one of those maw-with-legs is in the area!
Barney, either.
With 30 foot crocs down in the river; just going for a drink could have resulted in a wicked scrap.
(https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-54ae681f5130f5dc9be1812bb2d29792)
Contrary to what Jurassic Park taught us, the T-Rex had exceptional eyesight. It had better eyesight than an eagle, with those massive eyeballs and forward facing eyes. If I'm not mistaken, they were around when the meteor knocked out most life on Earth at the end of the Cretaceous Period, so I wonder how different things would have been if that meteor had missed us. Would something like the T-Rex still be around today, or were they going to go extinct anyway? It's interesting that life in general got smaller since then.
Oh, also be grateful the running crocodiles didn't survive. Its hooved feet allowed it to chase after prey rather than wait for it to come to them. In periods following great extinction events, surviving species find themselves competing with themselves, so they diversify to try to find a vacant niche to fill. This was the result.
(https://64.media.tumblr.com/0816dd38ea9fff0ee96e5d79fa96e60a/tumblr_p40l8gkL7s1s5f2yxo1_1280.png)
I like to think of T-Rex as well intended, but misunderstood.
In the midst of all the terror and chaos, the rest of the dinosaurs thundered along living full lives while consuming the Earths resources with no regard for anyone but themselves. I don't want to hear people complain about T Rex. It's not fair.
Piles of coprolites the size of VW minibuses. Imagine the smell...
Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on April 28, 2021, 11:26:45 AM
Piles of coprolites the size of VW minibuses. Imagine the smell...
It would be heaven... if you were a bloodhound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZkTh_T75QY
Oh, and...
New Study Finds T. Rex Walked at a Slow Pace of Three Miles Per Hour (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-study-finds-that-t-rex-walked-at-slow-pace-of-3-miles-per-hour-180977572/)
Quote from: SGOS on April 28, 2021, 11:40:59 AM
It would be heaven... if you were a bloodhound.
Any sensory overload can become tedious.
Quote from: PopeyesPappy on April 28, 2021, 11:44:14 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZkTh_T75QY
Oh, and...
New Study Finds T. Rex Walked at a Slow Pace of Three Miles Per Hour (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-study-finds-that-t-rex-walked-at-slow-pace-of-3-miles-per-hour-180977572/)
And others show that it ran like a bunny. You pays your quarter and takes your choice.
Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on April 28, 2021, 11:44:26 AM
Any sensory overload can become tedious.
I'm not sure this is true of bloodhounds.
Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on April 28, 2021, 11:45:05 AM
And others show that it ran like a bunny. You pays your quarter and takes your choice.
There was nothing in the story I read about the new study that said T-Rex could not run faster. Just that it's natural walking speed was probably slower than previous estimates.
Quote from: Blackleaf on April 28, 2021, 12:53:16 AM
If I'm not mistaken, they were around when the meteor knocked out most life on Earth at the end of the Cretaceous Period, so I wonder how different things would have been if that meteor had missed us. Would something like the T-Rex still be around today, or were they going to go extinct anyway? It's interesting that life in general got smaller since then.
Yes, T-Rex was around then.
I love these sorts of hypotheticals. For starters, dinosaurs would undoubtedly still be at the top of the food chain, possibly many would be heavily feathered. Mammals would still be around, though not nearly as diverse and large as today - but they'd fare well in cold climates.
And speaking of cold climates, the Earth would be headed towards another Ice Age without humans burning hydrocarbons like crazy. Without humans, many species - especially megafauna - would be doing just fine, though these large critters would be more reptilian or bird-like than the mostly mammal species that our ancestors wiped out. You'd possibly also see more ferns and less flowering plants.
In the sea - a biome that gets less attention than it deserves - you'd see gigantic plesiosaurs, marine reptiles called mosasaurs (which bear live young and live in shallow seas), ammonites (shelled mollusks closely related to today's cephalopods) and belemnoids (cephalopods very similar to modern squid/cuttlefish). Also, planktons would be more diverse.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D3KeUQkWAAEzyvC?format=jpg&name=small)
A blast of roughly 100 million megatons (for comparison, Tsar Bomba was 50 megatons)
The equivalent of a magnitude 12 earthquake at the blast site, shockwaves which may have destabilized volcanoes across the world and led to unexpected eruptions
Several rounds of megatsunami anywhere near the coast
Ejected material from the impact would have rained down on the Earth at around 2700°F (1482°C), creating widespread fires
And last but not least, ocean acidification, which triggered ecological collapse and hampered recovery
Spinosaurus is pretty mysterious. They keep coming up with new stuff all the time. It was wading. No it is not. It is! (Probbaly it did.) LOL
But raptors... I'm thinking Utahraptor. Now, that's a wild animal. None of the big bad ones give that vibe. If I had to choose to live with one of them as a threat, I'd pick rex or spino rather than something like utahraptor.
Birds, man. Just watching sparrows is enough to give the idea. They are incredible. If we fight a fantasy species war, dibs on sparrows and army ants. Also I'm declaring Cuban snail as the most tasteful animal on the planet. For the record.
Quote from: PopeyesPappy on April 28, 2021, 11:44:14 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZkTh_T75QY
I always like this song. I never knew the title, who did it, or had seen the acrobatics of the video. It would come on the radio without visuals when I was driving, and all I could do was settle back and groove. How could anything that simple be so satisfying? It was like some neurological researcher just kept activating my brain's reward center for 4 minutes.