Article
Dinosaurs Attack
- Grades: 1–2, 3–5
The following questions were answered by dinosaur expert Don Lessem, paleontologist Tim Rowe, and paleontologist Bill Hammer.
Q: Would a dinosaur eat us if it were alive today?
A: If dinosaurs were alive today, some would try to eat us, but most
would be plant-eaters. I think we could outsmart the nasty ones and
probably outrun most of them! (Don Lessem)
Q: How did velociraptors attack?
A: Because Velociraptors were equipped with huge toe and finger claws,
light bodies, and strong legs, so they were probably able to leap into
the air and slash with their hands and feet. They may have hunted in
packs but we have no evidence of that. we only have the suggestion from
fossils of several individuals around a kill that its bigger cousin
Deinonychus did hunt in packs. The larger raptors probably couldn't leap
to slash, they would have had to stand on one leg to kick with the
other, while the lightly built Velociraptor was more like the Karate
Kid. (Don Lessem)
Q: Did the T-Rex pounce on his prey?
A: Scientists think that T. rex was, like most meat-eaters, a scavenger
most of the time. That means it ate mostly things already dead. It could
kill most anything it wanted, but it didn't pounce. T. rex weighed seven
tons or more, and that's kind of heavy to do any jumping, unless you
want to land with a broken leg. (Don Lessem)
Q: When travelling in packs, could deinonychuses kill any other
dinosaur?
A: Dienonychus may well have been a pack hunter. It was discovered in
what now appears to have been a pack of at least six that were killed by
a tenontosaurus, a much bigger animal, that it may have hunted down.
(Don Lessem)
- Subjects:Archaeology, Dinosaurs, Paleontology and Fossils, Scientists and Human Endeavor, Animal Survival and Adaptation

