Moontanman

Eclectic would mean they could eat a wide variety of plants. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauropoda Oxygen levels... http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/11/03/dinosaurs.oxygen.reut/

after the extinction of the dinosaurs other groups did start evolving into empty niches other than mammals, crocodilians became land predators for a "short" while, things like terror birds and some mammal groups that are either no longer with us or that have been relegated to minor roles in the ecology. Used to be lots of huge land turtles as well, not just on islands.

What dino meat tastes like is obvious... chicken... Yes there are mammals with specific diets and many that eat what ever they can get, my point is that larger animals tend to be a bit more eclectic in their eating habits but since we have no idea if this is true for dinosaurs one way or another speculation is moot. It's quite possible my OP was a bit vague but what I had in mind was more of a thought experiment in what would happen if a particular species of dinosaur was released into our world, minus humans, how would they fair in competition with modern mammals. I have read some assertions that dinosaurs were superior to mammals in their physiology, they are thought to have had a superior method of breathing much as birds do today, hollow bones like birds for less weight and a stronger weight to strength ratio, even sauropods are now thought by some to have had these adaptations and they contributed to the size they were able to obtain. Dinosaurs never competed with modern mammals but they did compete with and dominate the mammal like reptiles which had achieved dinosaur like size and domination of the environment before dinosaurs evolved and went on to dominate. Possibly a better example would be a continent of dinosaurs "suddenly" being connected to continent of modern mammals and the interactions of both types, This is not unprecedented with placental mammals displacing most of the marsupials when north and south america connected after a long separation. This is also relevant because terror birds went into north america when this happened and they were quite successful for a while. The life styles of modern mammals and dinosaurs were both similar and wildly different, as for the turtle comparison hiding eggs the size of golf balls is bit easier than eggs the size of footballs but it is a valid comparison but we would need to know a bit more about how things like sauropods hid or protected their eggs. I think it's obvious that a large adult sauropod or large adult theropod would be invincible to modern mammal predators but i think it would not be that simple. If dinosaurs were physiologically superior to modern mammals then over long time periods they should dominate at least some ecological niches.

I'm not sure how this is relevant, we have no idea if sauropods were specialists or not. We can see that a great many large herbivourus mammals eat highly varied diets, I would think it justified to assume dinosaurs were just as adaptable.

You are correct, I misread your post, sorry...

Quite the contrary, I grew up on a farm and have personally observed cows browsing on brush, drier regions cattle often have little to graze on but rough vegetation..

It is fun, and i think not a useless exercise, at the very least i think this phenomena gives a unique look into the human psyche...

I apologize, you are of course correct, many people seem to think that one fake means all are fake when in fact if all were fake but one...

Recently a hobby store here in town has started flying model airplanes at night with bright lights on them in odd colors or patterns, in low lying cloud conditions they are very strange looking and have been around for several years. If you don't get any more of a look than a light in the sky it's impossible to say what it could have been...

So I guess multiple independent eyewitnesses, multiple independent radar contact, interaction with commercial airliners and military jets over four days over our nations capital is just dismissed as incredulity... Keep in mind I am not claiming it must be aliens but some extraordinary objects have been seen and dismissing them out of hand is as silly as as couple hundred years ago saying that meteors were hoaxes or mistaken identity because everyone knew stones could not fall from the sky... There are some few really inexplicable sightings and not because of a lack of data, dismissing them by asserting silly shit like comets and slow meteors is intellectually vapid... It could be many things but simply ignoring this phenomena because it can't be explained easily seems dishonest to me... Claiming pelicanism is simply not right..

Cattle will eat vegetation other than grass..

I do understand that but those pic of fairies were quite crude and easily shown as false with modern equipment. There are UFO photos that have withstood the Test of time" ... The Trent UFO pics are an example of something extraordinary flying in sight of two people and being photographed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMinnville_UFO_photographs Phillip J. Klass one of the main debunkers is known for his single mined efforts to debunk UFOs at any cost, he suggested the explanation of some sightings as slow moving meteors or comets...

How would you assume that vegetation from one era would be indigestible in another? Sauropods lived right up till the end, changing vegetation didn't seem to have an effect...

This is simply not true Paraceratherium http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraceratherium was quite large, as large as many dinosaurs. Dinosaurs also had high metabolisms, and animals like elephants do not have high metabolisms being at least partly gigantotherms. And since i did not suggest any such thing this is a strawman, please review the rules.. I see no reason why sauropods couldn't eat modern flora, they existed both before and after modern flora dominated the earth. If we are talking of sauropods it is not believed they protected their eggs, of course that could be wrong, but baby sauropods would be just as vulnerable as baby mammals but with out the adults to protect them. Other dinosaurs evidently did protect their eggs and young so they might not have been as vulnerable if you compare them to modern dinosaurs like ostriches. Of course if we include marine fauna in this there were mosasaurs and other marine reptiles that could have given marine mammals a run for their money as well...

I agree, that does pertain to modern films and photos, but there are both taken well before the time of photoshop that have considerable credibility to suggest that something extraordinary flew close to people of impeccable character. Then you have sightings by multiple witnesses, multiple radars, that interacted with aircraft both civilian and military at the same time, one of them was over Washington, DC two weekends in a row, and they were predicted to arrive days or weeks ahead of time due to reports that were getting closer and closer to DC. Many people go with the military who say it was false radar returns but that doesn't explain even a small part of the sightings... the Air force's reaction was not believable and didn't account for the majority of the sightings... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1952_Washington,_D.C._UFO_incident

I would suggest you find a large group of women, large to make sure you have enough to make it statistically valid, sit down with them and start making these assertions. I'm betting you would come away with knots on your ego if not your head...

Your impression is mistaken exotic animals are causing problems all over the world, from pythons in the Florida everglades to large mouth bass in Japan. Just in my area Flathead catfish and blue catfish from the Mississippi river system have caused considerable harm to the native species. Rabbits and mice in Australia, I can go on and on but it's a real problem and natives often do not fair well when exotic species are introduced. Pacu introduced on some pacific islands have actually started harming humans, hence their nickname "nut cutter" Disease is yet another problem, exotics often carry disease and the native fauna suffer greatly. This is even happening in the oceans, lion fish , native to pacific waters introduced in Florida have now taken over many deep reefs and wreaks all along the east coast of the USA.

I'm not sure why that is relevant, can you elaborate?

Throttle back a bit dude, this is the speculations section, no one expects a time rift to open and see an apatosaurus come running out... When species from one ecosystem are transferred to another many time the alien organism crowds out native organisms, this has happened many times in history, from encrusting mussels in the great lakes to round gobies, carp, catfish, the list is very long...

The TV show was just the spark for the idea, why is that such a bad thing?

I guess the idea of Russia allying it's self with the west is too difficult to comprehend?

I know it's a TV show guys, just a little mind game about two completely different ecologies, during the time of dinosaurs no large mammals existed, now the only dinosaurs left are birds. I think it's interesting to wonder if dinosaurs could compete with modern mammals. No such thing as a brontosaurus guys... One of the episodes that caught my attention since invasive non native species is something NANFA is deeply concerned about was when thousands of pterosaurs came through a rift. Single animals would not be a bid deal as far as invasive species goes but thousands could establish a population if they could compete with modern birds.

In one episode a huge flock of pterosaurs came though, this what made me start this train of thought. Obviously one T-rex isn't going to reproduce so any damage he might do would be limited. To Primeval's credit the creatures that come though are often just annoying rather than dangerous, If it was US based every incursion would be a T-rex. I think that modern mammals would give a good account of themselves over time. Lions could certainly kill small dinosaurs and babies of larger ones. I think the dinosaurs egg laying would be their Achilles heel, one sauropod gravid with eggs would simply lay them and walk away, a passing honey badger would make short work of them. A Kodiak bear is quite formidable as a predator, it would be interesting to see how one would handle a moderately sized predatory dino... I'm not sure but I think I read where some dinosaurs were pack hunters as well.

I like a British TV program called "Primeval" in this show rifts in time allow animals from various eras to invade the present. In this show usually only one or two animals come through and are dealt with in various ways. The animals from the past are generally shown to be too dangerous for modern animals to deal with them but I wonder if that is true. During the time of the dinosaurs there were no modern type Mammals and the mammals that were alive were easily dominated by dinosaurs. If the two ecosystems were truly mixed in some way would Mammals beat out the dinosaurs or would dinosaurs reclaim their dominance? I think dinosaurs would be at a big disadvantage over time due to laying eggs and the fact that modern mammals are more powerful than the mammals the dinosaurs lived with... In one of the Jurassic park novelizations they strongly indicated that dinosaurs had migrated to the mainland and were slowly taking over. Would size prevail or mammal sophistication?