Member-only story
T. Rex and Aliens
Ah, dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are cool. Dinosaurs even have feathers now (although that picture doesn’t).
We keep learning things about dinosaurs, and one of the most recent things we learned is about “non-avian theropods.” That’s the subset of dinosaurs the infamous Tyrannosaurus rex belongs to.
Specifically, carnivorous non-avian theropods. We’ve discovered more about how they move and how they hunt that is very interesting. Very interesting indeed.
Pursuit versus Ambush Predators
To explain this, we’ll start by looking at the two kinds of predator:
- Pursuit predators chase their prey until they are able to catch it.
- Ambush predators hide or stalk their prey then pounce.
Many of us have one or the other or both in our homes: Dogs are pursuit predators and cats are ambush predators.
Tyrannosaurus rex has long been known to be a pursuit predator. No news there. But what has changed is what kind of pursuit predator they are.