The dinosaur thread

Another thing to keep in mind is also that JP's dinosaurs act a bit like Spiteful A.I.s in video games. In particular, they tend to all gang up on the humans even though it makes far more sense for them to fight each other instead.

For example, a hungry dinosaur isn't going to choose humans as its first choice, because humans are not their natural prey. Same goes for surplus killings, too. So dinosaurs let loose in a park like that would probably be a bigger threat to each other than to the humans.

Another thing is that even if the dinosaurs in JP were killing you for the hell of it, it's highly unlikely they'd find it so fun that they'd go to the lengths they're shown to go to in JP. Especially if humans manage to start fighting back. A dinosaur would probably only be as aggressive toward humans as in JP if it had some form of oddly specific mental illness.

Many JP "dinosaurs" are sociopaths because of how they grow up.

IIRC, thefe was one two legged dinosaur with a brain to body ratio comparable to dogs, so it isnt impossible.

If I understand correctly, sociopathy is usually more genetic than environmental, though environmental factors can exacerbate sociopathic tendencies.

The smartest dinosaurs had a ratio comparable to an opossum’s.

Given the fact that all the Jurassic Park born animals were domestically raised, that has a lot of meat to it.

Zoo animals dont act like that either.

I think the smartest dinosaur was the Troodon, iirc.

Speaking of Troodons, you should see how Jurassic Park:The Game depicted them.

http://jurassicpark.wikia.com/wiki/Troodon

Is the peregrine falcon the fastest dinosaur ever lived?

One reason for surplus’s killing can be security, foxes do it reasonably often in the event of a hen house invasion, they kill not just enough to eat but any additional hens that make noise and thus could raise the alarm. It’s why cocks are commonly killed and sitting hens are commonly left alive.

edited 9th Feb '18 8:39:42 PM by Silasw

Probably.

Damn, I love the relation of birds and dinosaurs, is like the universe decided mix my two favorite animals as a child.

The whole concept of "surplus killing" seems on shaky ground, to me. It's like we are trying to impose human-derived concepts from classical economics on animals (as opposed to deriving our economic concepts from animals, which would probably be more valid).

Has anyone checked out TREY Explainer's videos?

Also, happy Darwin day!

edited 12th Feb '18 7:25:10 PM by RAlexa21th

If you were frightened by the kitchen scene, then you should play this game that allows to relive the fear of being stalked by raptors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EDCvqe4ZGo

I feel that post belongs to the Jurassic Park thread.

Ok.

It does make me think that if the raptors had feathers like real life that people would be just as scared of them, especially with the kitchen scene.

Depends on what kind of raptors. Real Velociraptors and "bird of preys" can scare people, but any human 12+ years can fight them off most of the time.

edited 13th Mar '18 7:13:57 PM by RAlexa21th

Real velociraptors were way smaller, and I think a good size number of people could fend them off. However, bigger raptors are the run the heck as you can.

I'm not sure running would help since these guys run faster than Usain Bolt and super agile.

The best thing to do is probably to scare them by grabbing something hard and swing it around.

Since raptors were probably not as smart as they were portrayed in the movies, they could be better handled.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromaeosauridae

After seeing the other raptor species, I actually think the feathers give them a majestic feeling to them. They really do live up to their bird of prey label. Also someone should add microraptors, because they look adorable.

edited 13th Mar '18 7:22:57 PM by firewriter

Dromaeosaurids were comparatively slow compared to tyrannosaurids, ornithomimids, troodontids, caenagnathid oviraptorosaurs, etc.

That is irrelevant to what I said.

You said “these guys run faster than Usain Bolt” & I pointed out that dromaeosaurids weren’t particularly fast. Did I miss something?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/phys.org/news/2015-11-dakotaraptor-hell-creek-formation-lethal.amp

Dakotaraptor: 30 mph

Usain Bolt: 28 mph

I actually underestimated Bolt's speed, but even if big raptors are slower than T-Rex and Carnotaurus, they are still faster than us primates.

edited 14th Mar '18 7:42:51 AM by RAlexa21th

Stock Dinosaurs (True Dinosaurs) appears to have outdated info on at least one dinosaur — namely, Amphicoelias fragillimus, which had been finally reassigned to the new genus Maraapunisaurus last year. How should the mentions of Amphicoelias be rewritten?