Does this Prove Anything? - prey grazing

[Russell Moran <rzzz@austarmetro.com.au>]

> Can someone smarter read and summarize this for me?  It seems to suggest that
> these theropods had metabolism half way between mammals and reptiles?

> I always thought that these theropods were fully warm-blooded.

> http://www.uv.es/~pardomv/pe/1999_2/gigan/intro.htm

> Does this really prove they aren't fully warm-blooded?

The authors in this paper suggest:

"By converting dinosaurian or reptilian metabolic rates to equivalent 
mammalian metabolic ratesthis single equation can be used to estimate 
food requirements for these dinosaurs. Using the intermediate 
metabolic rates for Giganotosaurus (8000 kg) and Tyrannosaurus (6000 
kg), their food requirements would have been 20 and 17 kg/day 
respectively."

Just thinking - this (daily food requirements) suggests the 
intriguing possibility that big adult rex guy chompers could have 
survived by just 'nipping' tasty bits off passing prey critters - 
avoiding the whole risker deal of being dino terminators. A few 
little nips in a day and you've got 20 kilos of meat and the 
disconcerted prey wanders off to grow more morsels. Moveable feast if 
you like? This 'prey grazing' would explain those monstrously large 
heads relative to body size (quite different to mammalian predators). 
Also works well for scavenging.

idle musings on a sunday morning

rzzz