So Jurassic Park got it wrong! Smaller theropods, like Velociraptor and Troodon, had even better depth perception than T-rex. rex: The Ultimate Predator is a full-scale, full-colour model into which the curators poured all the latest research. It also means that T-rex would have been able to detect prey even if it stood still against the background. Koch Hall of Fossils (Deep Time) that has been enhanced with close-ups of educational content from the exhibit: fossils, videos, murals, and text panels. This is select list of fossils and other assets featured on the improved virtual tour of the David H.

Their vision was similar to today's falcon. In coevolution, two or more species change reciprocally in response to one another prey are thought to drive the evolution of their predator, and vice versa. Deep Time Enhanced Virtual Tour Fossil List. This means that tyrannosaurs would have had excellent depth perception to estimate the distance to prey and the timing of their attack. The Jurassic predator Razanandrongobe sakalavae used its colossal, ragged. Many lynx eating many hares causes a decline in the hare population size. The invertebrate predators prey on and lay their eggs near emerging tadpoles. As hare populations increase,the lynx populations also increase due to increased food supplies. This gave them a high degree of binocular field of view. 1: Predator and prey population cycling: The cycling of lynx and snowshoe hare populations in Northern Ontario is an example of predator-prey dynamics. Small wings could have also provided a boost when leaping out of reach of predators or pouncing on prey, or they might have helped dinosaurs run up steep slopes. But theropods, including tyranosaurs such as the famous T-rex, had forward-facing eyes. Richard wants to know why predatory dinosaurs appear to have eyes on the sides of their head?įrançois Therrien, the Curator of Dinosaur Palaeoecology at The Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, says that most meat-eating dinosaurs known as theropods, had laterally positioned eyes, but not all of them. Having eyes on the sides of their heads resulted in a limited amount of depth perception, similar to pigeons and crocodiles today.

This provides predators with greater depth-perception for pouncing on food, and gives prey a wider view of the landscape to survey the many dangers that may lurk just beyond their view. Eyes of predators like mountain lions and pine martens have forward-facing eyes, whereas herbivores like Sitka deer or chipmunks tend to have eyes that are oriented temporally. This traveling exhibit consists of life-sized animatronic dinosaurs displayed in a complete environment reflecting the geography, geology, and flora of the period in which they lived in. This week's question comes to us from Graham Richard from Haida Gwaii, who asks the following:Įye orientation can reveal a lot about the niche terrestrial vertebrates occupy. Prey is an immersive and educational experience.

Predator vs prey dinosaur exhibit