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Subject: Re: A question for everyone who has written a chess program........

Author: Roy Eassa

Date: 08:48:42 06/13/02

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On June 13, 2002 at 02:09:40, Christophe Drieu wrote:

>On June 12, 2002 at 14:31:57, Slater Wold wrote:
>
>>Where'd you come up with the name?
>>
>>Crafty, Fritz, Junior, Rebel, Chess Tiger, Movei, Ferret, Monsoon, etc., etc.
>>
>>
>>Where'd they all come from?
>
>I choose T-Rex for my winboard engine, because I thought it would be cool to
>give it an agressive name (like shredder) . The T-Rex was the more agressive
>dinosaur in past and in future my engine will be too (I am not really sure !).


Recently, several scientists have concluded that the T. Rex dinosaur was a
scavenger rather than a hunter.  I saw a PBS documentary about this a few months
ago.

Here's an excerpt from one web page
(http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/trex/specialtrex2.html):

T. rex: Scavenger or Predator?

A current topic in paleontology that has received much popular press is the
question of whether T.rex (or other Tyrannosauridae in general) were predators
or scavengers. Let's explore this issue.

Paleontologist Jack Horner of the Museum of the Rockies (Bozeman, MT) has
proposed that T.rex could not have been a predator. His arguments against
predation include its small eyes (needed to see prey), small arms (needed to
hold prey), huge legs (meaning slow speed) and that there is no evidence for
predation — bones have been found with tyrannosaur teeth embedded in them or
scratched by them, but so far no study has shown that tyrannosaurs killed other
dinosaurs for food (a bone showing tyrannosaur tooth marks that had healed would
be strong evidence for predation).

His evidence supporting scavenging include its large olfactory lobes (part of
the brain used for smell), and that its legs were built for walking long
distances (the thigh was about the size of the calf, as in humans). Vultures
have large olfactory lobes and are good at soaring to cover long distances.

There are arguments against scavenging. Most large living predators (such as
lions and hyenas) do scavenge meat happily when it is available, but most do
prefer fresh meat. Dr. Horner argues that its arms were too weak to grab prey,
but sharks, wolves, snakes, lizards and even many birds are successful predators
without using their forelimbs (if any).



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