"since we know that the hormones of these animals have been altered to switch off the continuing growth of tissues"

D'oh! I meant "...we know that the hormones of these animals that prevent coninuing growth have been switched off"!!!!
from da masta, age ?, ?, ?, ?; January 27, 2002

Great, Da Masta! *whispers:please post it soon, please post it soon*
from Joe Bob B., age almost 11, Menlo Park, ?, ?; January 24, 2002

Soon the episode of DWF I'm working on will come out.

I'll only allow a wee bit of info out before I post part 1!

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Animantarx Giganteus (Gigantic Living Fortress)
Length: 35m
Width: 10m
Known data:
Animantarx Ramaljonesi was described in 1999 by Kirkland, Carpenter, Burge and Bird. It was a senonian ankylosaur, related to euoplocephalus, but it lacked a tail club. It's armour, however, more than made up, it had a very tough shell, with bony knobs and massive jutting spikes all over the place. It was such a formidable defensive force that they named it "Animantarx" or Animate (living) Fortress. Animantarx is an obscure animal, only people considerably familiar with dinosaurs know about it. However, recently the CIA and FBI have recieved evidence that these creatures may well be being cloned and genetically altered to produce a new species, even larger and more heavily armoured than Animantarx Ramaljonesi. Little is known about them, the size estimates are guesswork, since we know that the hormones of these animals have been altered to switch off the continuing growth of tissues, and various chemicals which encourage fast growth are associated with the work being done on these animals. Little is known about who is doing this or why, but an obscure company called Terrofex is being investigated by the FBI, but so far their investigation has proved fruitless. Both the FBI and CIA do not wish to reveal how they got this information, but we have reason to beleive that there have been several raids on several Terrofex laboratories, with quite disturbing results.
from da masta, age ?, ?, ?, ?; January 24, 2002

"oops! I didn't mean it like that.. i meant "like da masta" how i think big raptors attack like how you think raptors attack. I don't think your'e the kind of person who would ambush people in the street."

Yeah, I know! It's quite funny really! Well, it wouldn't be if it really was like that in real life but it is quite funny if you read the message.
from da masta, age ?, ?, ?, ?; January 24, 2002

"it sounds like I'm a savage beast who attacks people!!!

Like I lie in wait behind a few bins, and when someone goes past I ambush them and bite them to death"

oops! I didn't mean it like that.. i meant "like da masta" how i think big raptors attack like how you think raptors attack. I don't think your'e the kind of person who would ambush people in the street.
from Tom G, age ?, ?, ?, ?; January 23, 2002

Yeah, the Honkie Tong incident was a good excuse to attack me.

And although I shouldn't have swore, I don't take back the whole message. Honkie's always going on about all these annoying new discoveries that T - Rex was faster, stronger, or had a stronger bite. And when something is discovered putting down another dinosaur, he always went on about that. He drove normally quite calm people like Nick mad.
from da masta, age ?, ?, ?, ?; January 23, 2002

"and I think large raptors would've hunted prey by amushing them then catching up in a short sprint then jumping on and killing its prey using its feet, hands and teeth like da masta . "

It sounds like I'm a savage beast who attacks people!!!

Like I lie in wait behind a few bins, and when someone goes past I ambush them and bite them to death!
from da masta, age ?, ?, ?, ?; January 23, 2002

Yeah, Honkie didn't really use swarming as his strategy, but it was to his benefit, though. I should have put "a humungous army" instead of "his humungous army".
from Joe Bob B., age 10, Menlo Park, ?; January 22, 2002

"Anyway, the pictures/fiction section is kind of abandoned"

yeah...now that brads gone and my scanner isn't working I don't think there will be much pictures for a while. and I think large raptors would've hunted prey by amushing them then catching up in a short sprint then jumping on and killing its prey using its feet, hands and teeth like da masta . i think utahraptor used its hand claws as much as its feet because its claws are bigger compered to its body than other big raptors like deinonychus.
from Tom G, age ?, ?, ?, ?; January 22, 2002

"It's much safer now without Honkie and his humungous army of T-rex fans to send a huge wave of insults at you for saying raptors could hunt in a pack."

Honkie Tong always made a point of explaining that he never had anything to do with the more irrational Rexer fans. Honkie Tong just happened to like T - Rex, he had no responsibility for what other people put. Honkie never swarmed... he had a better strategy.
If he saw your post I think that he would be fuming. Inside himself. Not publicly.
from da masta, age ?, ?, ?, ?; January 21, 2002

More on hunting capabilities of dromies:
Dromeosaurids had the second least gracile limb proportions of any dinosaur (I think only Therinzinosaurs had less), but they were very agile and could make quick turns. So they probably relied on ambush, then an all out attack to hunt. What I mean by an all out attack is that they would use a combination of all of there weapons, because a kick or two would not be enough to injure an herbivore. Just for comparison, if you raced a 6 ton dromeosaurid against a 6 ton T-rex, T-rex would win. Same thing if you raced a 500 kg dromie, like Utahraptor, against a 500 kg Tyrannosaur like Alectrosaurus, Alectrosaurus would win. But in agility, dromies and very near the top.
from Tim M., age ?, ?, ?, ?; January 21, 2002

Well, birds evolved from small coelurosaurs, so there's a good chance
dromies could have evolved into birds.
from Tim M., age ?, ?, ?, ?; January 20, 2002

I also think the larger dromies were capable of hunting larger prey.
from Tim M., age ?, ?, ?, ?; January 20, 2002

"My personal belief about smaller dromeosaurids is that they did not hunt animals than themselves,because the risk of injury would be too high.(I could go into details, but...) There's no evidence that any small dromeosaurids hunted in packs at all! I think they would probably stick to carrion, lizards and small mammals."

But lizards and small mammals mainly. The jackals of the cretacious plains. Tim, do you totaly agree with MY theory? (Check the archives. I guess it saved me a little from being mauled by the Rex fans earlier than they did.) Nocturnal, hunters of small mammals, and lizards. (Xenarthovores should be a word!) (Yes I know lizards do not belong to the shrew family!) However, Utahras and Deinonychus could hunt quite substantial prey in my opinion. They probably hid in ambush, then very quickly cleared the distance between them and their prey, then jumped on, (sorry Honkie, ever seen how muscular a dromie leg is?) although not too high, so that their legs could reach the belly, and rip out various guts, (duodenum, intestines, kidneys,) and eat food. Or one animal distracted the herd, while the rest attacked. Or they panicked the herd, and one weak fella gets separated, and they rip him/her apart, as mentioned earlier. But when larger carnivores appeared, the larger dromies disappeared, they where probably getting chased off kills by groups of larger carnivores, which may well have temporarily banded together to chase off the dromies. However, the smaller dromies which hunted mammals and didn't compete with the large carnivores, prospered and diversified, and may well have become birds. Although something like caudipterix is more likely.
from da masta, age ?, ?, ?, ?; January 20, 2002

My personal belief about smaller dromeosaurids is that they did not hunt animals than themselves,because the risk of injury would be too high.(I could go into details, but...) There's no evidence that any small dromeosaurids hunted in packs at all! I think they would probably stick to carrion, lizards and small mammals.
from Tim M., age ?, ?, ?, ?; January 19, 2002

How about raptors vs. T-rex? *gets mauled* Okay, not that. Anyway, the pictures/fiction section is kind of abandoned, too. How about we just talk about raptor hunting capabilities? It's much safer now without Honkie and his humungous army of T-rex fans to send a huge wave of insults at you for saying raptors could hunt in a pack.
from Joe Bob B., age 10, Menlo Park, ?, ; January 19, 2002

Hey, the last time someone tried to start a discussion it worked, it kept this board alive for quite a while. Someone think of some topic to liven things uo here. This board is too abandoned. No - ones posted on the science forum for days.
from da masta, age ?, ?, ?, ?; January 18, 2002