WEBVTT - Did Velociraptors Really Hunt in Packs?

0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:06.760
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey there,

0:00:06.760 --> 0:00:09.479
<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff lor and vogel bomb here whoever. The human

0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:13.000
<v Speaker 1>stars of the latest Jurassic Park movie are the velociraptors

0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:16.520
<v Speaker 1>are the fan favorite performers. Packs of raptors can gang

0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.239
<v Speaker 1>up on anyone or anything, from kids in kitchens to

0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:23.800
<v Speaker 1>a hybridized dino monster. Their attacks are organized, strategic, and

0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.120
<v Speaker 1>in most of the movies they rely on a chain

0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:29.720
<v Speaker 1>of command within the group. But is such team oriented

0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:32.920
<v Speaker 1>behavior supported by the fossil record. Before we can answer

0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:36.159
<v Speaker 1>that question, we should clear something up. The dinosaur that's

0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:39.400
<v Speaker 1>called Velociraptor in the Jurassic Park movies and novels was

0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:42.760
<v Speaker 1>based on a completely different animal known as Dano nikus,

0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:45.600
<v Speaker 1>and when it comes to size, there's a huge gap

0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:48.960
<v Speaker 1>between the two. Velociraptor wasn't much bigger than a turkey,

0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:51.840
<v Speaker 1>but the adult Dano nikes measured eleven feet or about

0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:54.200
<v Speaker 1>three point three meters long and may have weighed more

0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:59.720
<v Speaker 1>than two hundred pounds. That's both are classified as dromaeosaurids,

0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:03.480
<v Speaker 1>a family of bird like carnivorous dinosaurs. Members of this

0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:07.119
<v Speaker 1>group had a specialized toe on each foot, which famously

0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:10.399
<v Speaker 1>was held in an upright position while they walked. In theory,

0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:13.040
<v Speaker 1>that habit kept the large hook shaped claws on those

0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.119
<v Speaker 1>digits nice and sharp. Historically, it was thought that these

0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:19.840
<v Speaker 1>claws were slashing tools used to disembowel prey, but recent

0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:21.840
<v Speaker 1>studies have found that the claws would have been better

0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:25.800
<v Speaker 1>equipped for stabbing or puncturing Dremeosaurus. Therefore, it might have

0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:28.120
<v Speaker 1>used their remarkable toes to help them cling on to

0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.080
<v Speaker 1>large thrashing victims. Think of this as sort of a

0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:35.440
<v Speaker 1>prehistoric rodeo. Getting back to Dana Nikus. This particular dinosaur

0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:38.520
<v Speaker 1>was originally discovered in nineteen thirty one in Montana, but

0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.399
<v Speaker 1>it wouldn't be named until nineteen sixty nine. That's when

0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:44.959
<v Speaker 1>Yale paleontologist John Ostrom was overseeing a dig at a

0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:47.680
<v Speaker 1>Montana quarry and the bones of four dino Nikes were

0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.880
<v Speaker 1>found strewn around the partial skeleton of a much larger

0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:56.120
<v Speaker 1>herbivore called Tanantosaurus. Late in his career, Ostrom compared this

0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:59.720
<v Speaker 1>paleocrime scene to a wolf pack dispatching its prey. The

0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.120
<v Speaker 1>four dead Dino Nikus dinos he theorized had been killed

0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:07.200
<v Speaker 1>while attacking the big plant eater in a coordinated group effort. Later,

0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.760
<v Speaker 1>other members of their pack presumably killed that tenacious dinosaur.

0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.960
<v Speaker 1>Ostrom's work influenced author Michael Crichton, who wrote pack hunting

0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:18.840
<v Speaker 1>Dromaeosaurus into the first Jurassic Park book. The concept has

0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:22.280
<v Speaker 1>since taken hold of the public's imagination. Moreover, it's had

0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:27.000
<v Speaker 1>a significant impact on dinosaurs science. Therapods, the group containing birds,

0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:31.040
<v Speaker 1>and all known extinct carnivorous dinos, are often found fossilized

0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:33.880
<v Speaker 1>in close proximity to other members of their own species.

0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:36.880
<v Speaker 1>Because of this, it's been argued that plenty of non

0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:41.000
<v Speaker 1>dromosaur predators like Tyrannosaurus and Allosaurus might have hunted in

0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:44.680
<v Speaker 1>packs too, but then again, perhaps they didn't. In a

0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:48.440
<v Speaker 1>two thousand seven paper, paleontologists Bryan Roach and Daniel Brinkman

0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:52.080
<v Speaker 1>dissected the issue at length, and in their opinion, neither

0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:55.880
<v Speaker 1>dana Niicus, nor Velociraptor, nor any other non avian predatory

0:02:55.919 --> 0:03:01.080
<v Speaker 1>dinosaur would have formed packs via email. Brinkman's blamed mammal

0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:05.160
<v Speaker 1>like cooperative pack hunting is an extremely rare and complex behavior,

0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:09.880
<v Speaker 1>so let's talk terminology. Brinkman and Roaches paper defines true

0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:13.080
<v Speaker 1>cooperative pack hunting as a group effort carried out by

0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:16.400
<v Speaker 1>animals that habitually work together with others of their species

0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.760
<v Speaker 1>to capture and subdue prey too large for an individual

0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:23.760
<v Speaker 1>predator to kill alone. Furthermore, these team players also defend

0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:28.400
<v Speaker 1>their territory collectively and may share youngster rearing duties. No

0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.960
<v Speaker 1>living bird or reptile fits the criteria. It's true that

0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:35.680
<v Speaker 1>nile crocodiles sometimes gang up on big mammals like wilder beasts,

0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:38.920
<v Speaker 1>but they later disperse, and although Harris hawks have been

0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:41.480
<v Speaker 1>known to form hunting parties of up to nine birds,

0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:44.840
<v Speaker 1>they target small game while doing so. That said, there

0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.120
<v Speaker 1>is one living animal that, according to Roached Brinkman, might

0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:51.600
<v Speaker 1>offer us some insight into how Drameosaurus and other non

0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:55.640
<v Speaker 1>avian therapods behaved around big prey items, the Komodo dragon.

0:03:56.400 --> 0:03:59.360
<v Speaker 1>Komodo dragons are solo hunters and effective ones at that,

0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:02.160
<v Speaker 1>and adult can bring down victims ten times its own

0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:05.840
<v Speaker 1>body weight. These reptiles are also eager scavengers, and when

0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:08.120
<v Speaker 1>one of them kills a large prey item, others are

0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.520
<v Speaker 1>likely to come running. What follows is a gruesome feeding

0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:15.200
<v Speaker 1>frenzy with a dozen or more commodo dragons mobbing the carcass.

0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:18.640
<v Speaker 1>Such meetings get violent fast. While squabbling over a corpse,

0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.719
<v Speaker 1>kmmotos may attack one another. Sometimes they even kill and

0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:26.000
<v Speaker 1>eat their smaller competitors at the site. So when paleontologists

0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.919
<v Speaker 1>find a large collection of therapod bones and or teeth

0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.400
<v Speaker 1>in the same fossil deposit, what should they make of it?

0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:34.400
<v Speaker 1>Should they interpret the remains like a wolf style family unit,

0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:36.440
<v Speaker 1>or should they be viewed as the site of a

0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:40.479
<v Speaker 1>disorganized mob where side squabbles and cannibalism would have been rampant.

0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:43.880
<v Speaker 1>For their part, Brinkman and Roach find the latter scenario

0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:47.800
<v Speaker 1>more probable. Brinkman said Dana Nikus and other non avian

0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.920
<v Speaker 1>therapods were most likely solitary hunters who engaged in antagonistic,

0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.720
<v Speaker 1>commodo dragon like feeding aggregations, and they interacted with each

0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:59.640
<v Speaker 1>other in ways that were much more contentious, combative, and cannibalistic.

0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:04.480
<v Speaker 1>The has been widely believed. Okay, but what about dinosaur footprints?

0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.520
<v Speaker 1>Can they shed any light onto the pack hunting debate.

0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:10.679
<v Speaker 1>In two thousand and seven, a hundred and twenty million

0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.880
<v Speaker 1>year old dromosaur trackway was discovered in China, six different

0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.440
<v Speaker 1>sets of parallel tracks were found, each made by an

0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:20.039
<v Speaker 1>animal standing about four ft or one point two meters

0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:22.520
<v Speaker 1>tall at the hip, and judging by the nature of

0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:24.880
<v Speaker 1>the sediment, it looks like these prints were all laid

0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:28.719
<v Speaker 1>down within a very short span of time. Anthony J. Martin,

0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:33.159
<v Speaker 1>a leading paleo ichnologist a trace fossil scientist, thinks the

0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:36.240
<v Speaker 1>animals who made them were traveling in some kind of group.

0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:40.000
<v Speaker 1>He said via email. The trackways show these dromayosaurs were

0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:43.160
<v Speaker 1>moving at about the same pace, in the same direction parallel,

0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:46.280
<v Speaker 1>and spaced more or less the same distance apart, so

0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:50.320
<v Speaker 1>I'm fairly certain that this is evidence of group behavior. Still,

0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:54.159
<v Speaker 1>this doesn't necessarily mean the dromosaurs hunted in packs. Maybe

0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.600
<v Speaker 1>they were rushing toward a dead body like those independently

0:05:56.640 --> 0:06:00.400
<v Speaker 1>minded komodo dragons. In order to confidently cite any footprint

0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:03.760
<v Speaker 1>assemblage as the product of pack hunting or a similar activity,

0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:07.400
<v Speaker 1>would need, said Martin, more evidence, such as tracks of

0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:10.159
<v Speaker 1>a prey animal that was clearly preceding them and not

0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.280
<v Speaker 1>by much time. Best of all would be the drumsur

0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:16.720
<v Speaker 1>tracks ending at a kill site and acknowledgist can dream right.

0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:25.120
<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by Mark Mancini and produced by

0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:27.760
<v Speaker 1>Tristan McNeil. For more on this and lots of other

0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:31.640
<v Speaker 1>dynamite topics and dynamite visit our home planet, how Stuff

0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:42.560
<v Speaker 1>Works dot com