HOME | DD

Description
That... rhymes... o_O

Anyway, so I'm riding in a car, and the thought occurs to me that hadrosaurs get a lot of bad press. Let's take a big combo Mesezoic scene in your mind, all locations and eras considered, with your typical Large Carnosaur for a protagonist, let's just say for a change its an acrocanthosaurid.

Now, Acroc's hungry. So he sets out looking for something to eat. He spots a Triceratops. The potential prey snorts and shakes it big, heavy, long-horned head. Nope, not for me! says Acroc. He sees a Stegosaurus. The steg flushes its plates bright scary colors and as if that isn't enough, swishes its tail menacingly. Acroc moves on; sees an Ankylosaur, who crouches down and thumps its tail warningly. Acroc sees a Dryosaurid- dryo moves too fast and is too small to bother trying to chase or ambush right now. Acroc sees a Struthiomimid, and fervently applies to the religion that those things are far too fast to ever be caught. Acroc sees other Large Carnosaurs- even if it was given to cannabalism, it would be risk being defeated by the others' sharp teeth and claws.

Acroc sees a sauropod. The big dinosaur rears up looking even bigger or (the theory proposed by that paleopathologist dude) squat down and swipe meaningfully with their enlarged thumb-claws. Yike! Acroc leaves sauropod-killing to Allosaur packs and goes off looking for a Therizinosaur. The beastie, happily munching away on leaves, reaches up with one long arm, and flashes its long, long, LONG claws. A shaken Acroc spies a pack of Deinonychus. The smaller theropods hiss and leap, showing off their killer-claws and their agility. Definitely not.

Acroc sees a herd of hadrosaurids... and his mouth begins watering. He lunges forward and lunch is dead in two bites. And so it goes with all other dinos I can think of- too big for one individual, too small to bother with, too well-protected to risk... except for hadrosaurs He vows off all other dinosaurs for all time, for the sake of the incredible, edible, defenseless hadrosaur!

Well, no. Unless you've tried to kill someone with your bare hands, you may not realize how hard it is to kill something roughly the same size you are without projectile weapons getting involved. You don't, especially with beasties the size of dinosaurs, have to tear their throat out to get them to leave you alone- knock them down, maybe trample on them a little, and they may find they have a broken leg. Multi-ton animals can't hunt on a broken leg.

So this Parasaurolophus female is subverting the dominant paradigm of the Helpless Hadrosaur. Got it?

Why is this particular confrontation between a Parasaurolophus and an Acrocanthosaurus? Because I was in the car and I've been trying to use references. I remember the gist of a Parasaurolophus' crest shape and suchlike because they're probably my favorite hadrosaur and as such I have looked upon their visage often. And while I didn't have any place to look up Albertasaurus or Tyrannosaurus or some other more likely predator, I DID have Robert Bakker's Raptor Red in the car with me, which has pictures of acrocs in the back. So das Large Carnosaur became an Acroc.

Yes, I know that they're from different times. They're, uh... in a parallel universe or something. 0_O O_0 Yeah... that's it.

Description
That... rhymes... o_O

Anyway, so I'm riding in a car, and the thought occurs to me that hadrosaurs get a lot of bad press. Let's take a big combo Mesezoic scene in your mind, all locations and eras considered, with your typical Large Carnosaur for a protagonist, let's just say for a change its an acrocanthosaurid.

Now, Acroc's hungry. So he sets out looking for something to eat. He spots a Triceratops. The potential prey snorts and shakes it big, heavy, long-horned head. Nope, not for me! says Acroc. He sees a Stegosaurus. The steg flushes its plates bright scary colors and as if that isn't enough, swishes its tail menacingly. Acroc moves on; sees an Ankylosaur, who crouches down and thumps its tail warningly. Acroc sees a Dryosaurid- dryo moves too fast and is too small to bother trying to chase or ambush right now. Acroc sees a Struthiomimid, and fervently applies to the religion that those things are far too fast to ever be caught. Acroc sees other Large Carnosaurs- even if it was given to cannabalism, it would be risk being defeated by the others' sharp teeth and claws.

Acroc sees a sauropod. The big dinosaur rears up looking even bigger or (the theory proposed by that paleopathologist dude) squat down and swipe meaningfully with their enlarged thumb-claws. Yike! Acroc leaves sauropod-killing to Allosaur packs and goes off looking for a Therizinosaur. The beastie, happily munching away on leaves, reaches up with one long arm, and flashes its long, long, LONG claws. A shaken Acroc spies a pack of Deinonychus. The smaller theropods hiss and leap, showing off their killer-claws and their agility. Definitely not.

Acroc sees a herd of hadrosaurids... and his mouth begins watering. He lunges forward and lunch is dead in two bites. And so it goes with all other dinos I can think of- too big for one individual, too small to bother with, too well-protected to risk... except for hadrosaurs He vows off all other dinosaurs for all time, for the sake of the incredible, edible, defenseless hadrosaur!

Well, no. Unless you've tried to kill someone with your bare hands, you may not realize how hard it is to kill something roughly the same size you are without projectile weapons getting involved. You don't, especially with beasties the size of dinosaurs, have to tear their throat out to get them to leave you alone- knock them down, maybe trample on them a little, and they may find they have a broken leg. Multi-ton animals can't hunt on a broken leg.

So this Parasaurolophus female is subverting the dominant paradigm of the Helpless Hadrosaur. Got it?

Why is this particular confrontation between a Parasaurolophus and an Acrocanthosaurus? Because I was in the car and I've been trying to use references. I remember the gist of a Parasaurolophus' crest shape and suchlike because they're probably my favorite hadrosaur and as such I have looked upon their visage often. And while I didn't have any place to look up Albertasaurus or Tyrannosaurus or some other more likely predator, I DID have Robert Bakker's Raptor Red in the car with me, which has pictures of acrocs in the back. So das Large Carnosaur became an Acroc.

Yes, I know that they're from different times. They're, uh... in a parallel universe or something. 0_O O_0 Yeah... that's it.