"They can strip the plankton off this cow in as little as seven days!"

July 2, 2015 1:23 PM

If Jurassic Park Were In Different Geological Eras
posted by a lungful of dragon (10 comments total)

I very much liked that. Thanks.
posted by benito.strauss at 2:14 PM on July 2, 2015

Is the T-Rex currently thought to be a scavenger? I had seen some They're Ruining Dinosaurs Again article about it, but my understanding was that was something of a fringe position.
posted by ckape at 3:10 PM on July 2, 2015

Yeah, it's pretty fringe. Like most carnivores it was probably an opportunist. My understanding is that it's really hard to be an exclusive scavenger without being able to fly.
posted by brundlefly at 3:20 PM on July 2, 2015 [2 favorites]

(Otherwise, this is awesome.)
posted by brundlefly at 3:24 PM on July 2, 2015

That pretty much is how I'd react if I had a trilobite running around in my car.
posted by Flashman at 3:31 PM on July 2, 2015

That pretty much is how I'd react if I had a trilobite running around in my car.


In the all-things-prehistoric-addled brain of seven-year-old me, trilobites were about the size of a computer mouse. At the Royal Ontario Museum, there is a relics casting of the largest trilobite fossil yet found, and its size compares favourably with that of a manhole cover. Yeesh.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:35 PM on July 2, 2015

I always thought that the movie should have been called "Upper Cretaceous Park."
posted by Nevin at 5:36 PM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Like most carnivores it was probably an opportunist.

I always heard the tiny arms described as more in-line with a carrion-eater and scavenger than with an apex predator that would be hunting down prey on land and just... biting at it.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 8:47 PM on July 2, 2015

Opportunist is more realistic.

Tiny arms = less in the way o f chawing great big chunks with great big mouth. I guess once you get in close and lock down, you can scrabble away and slowly work through armour.

But greeat big jaws/teeth and speed = if you wanted to jump something, you had to opportunity. On the other hand, if you saw dinner already prepped for you by some other dinos, hell, free dinner! (None of them will mess with you... just leave them some scraps.)

Goddamnit. Can we have a dino revolution to current political pyramid schemes?
posted by porpoise at 9:36 PM on July 2, 2015

Is the T-Rex currently thought to be a scavenger?

Finally, another chance to link to my favorite website ever: behold the treeosaur theory!
posted by dialetheia at 2:50 AM on July 3, 2015 [4 favorites]