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TheTimeDuck — Speculation about aggressive display

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Published: 2020-10-01 18:59:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 11956; Favourites: 328; Downloads: 22
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Description This picture has been inspired by the loads of paleoart works where aggressive interaction between dinosaurs is shown.

Not to underestimate the high artistic value of many of those, most of the behaviours portrayed there seem to me unlikely, with the animals acting more like fantasy monsters or Disney villains rather than real wild creatures.

Here I've tried to speculate a bit about the possible aggressive display of a dinosaur, in this case a Velociraptorine dromaeosaur. I chose this species as its anatomy is familiar to me since is similar to that of a bird, then it's easier to set its skeleton in different postures, consistent with its anatomy and behaviourally plausible.

The central figure, "A", shows the paravian in a relaxed, neutral posture.

Figure "B", top left, shows the animal in a threatening display intended as a warning for an opponent (conspecific or not) roughly the same size of the displaying animal, or otherwise felt as manageable in an eventual fight; it means that if the warning fails, an attack will follow. In this case, the animal lowers its head to protect its underparts, while it walks slowly towards the opponent in a posture which makes its weapon (teeth and claws) ready to use in case of counterattack. Meanwhile, it tries to look a bit bigger by raising the feathers on its back, in order to lead the opponent to overestimate its size and, possibly, avoid confrontation. A posture like this could be used on a conspecific or other competitor on the same source of food.

In figure "C", top right, the dinosaur is displaying for a conspecific, and its purpose is to claim the possession of a portion of territory, the right to mate with one or more females and so on. In this case, the posture is ritualised: the animal inflates its neck and plumage, probably emitting some sort of sound in the meantime; here it doesn't care about protecting its underpart as, if any confrontation will follow, it will be ritualised as well.

Figure "D, bottom, shows the theropod in a "bluff", intended to scare away an opponent of another species which is felt as too big or powerful for direct confrontation; it could be used for example by a mother against a predator trying to steal eggs from the nest or threatening her offspring. In this case, if the display fails the dinosaur will likely run away to save its life.

Of course we don't have any proof that dromaeosaurs really behaved this way, but I think all these behaviours are plausible and allowed by the animal's anatomy, speculative as they are.
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Comments: 18

Lynoteen [2024-10-08 19:48:32 +0000 UTC]

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JD-man [2021-08-10 20:59:21 +0000 UTC]

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DemonicFury5678 [2021-02-21 00:13:29 +0000 UTC]

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TheTimeDuck In reply to DemonicFury5678 [2021-02-21 23:33:15 +0000 UTC]

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DemonicFury5678 In reply to TheTimeDuck [2021-02-21 23:35:13 +0000 UTC]

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TheTimeDuck In reply to DemonicFury5678 [2021-02-21 23:37:31 +0000 UTC]

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DemonicFury5678 In reply to TheTimeDuck [2021-02-21 23:38:38 +0000 UTC]

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TheTimeDuck In reply to DemonicFury5678 [2021-02-21 23:46:18 +0000 UTC]

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DemonicFury5678 In reply to TheTimeDuck [2021-02-21 23:52:47 +0000 UTC]

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SorisSquirrel [2020-10-29 15:57:29 +0000 UTC]

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AllieArtMaker [2020-10-06 23:40:23 +0000 UTC]

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spartydragon [2020-10-01 21:49:08 +0000 UTC]

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KingOfCopper16 [2020-10-01 20:19:30 +0000 UTC]

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TheTimeDuck In reply to KingOfCopper16 [2020-10-01 20:22:19 +0000 UTC]

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Wonambi3 [2020-10-01 20:15:12 +0000 UTC]

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TheTimeDuck In reply to Wonambi3 [2020-10-01 20:23:26 +0000 UTC]

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a-noni-moose [2020-10-01 19:57:10 +0000 UTC]

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TheDinoDrawer66 [2020-10-01 19:08:29 +0000 UTC]

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