Group chasing tactics: how to catch a faster prey

Janosov, Milán; Virágh, Csaba; Vásárhelyi, Gábor; Vicsek, Tamás

doi:10.1088/1367-2630/aa69e7

Cited by 54 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Juveniles, less than 10-15 years of age [80,81] would still be in the zone where their long legs could be used to maximize top speed, potentially helping run down faster prey items. Beyond this it has been shown that amongst pack hunting animals employing strategy or communication between individuals can allow them to capture prey that is faster than any one individual [82]. Combining these factors we find that pack hunting would only increase the energetic savings differential even more dramatic between tyrannosaurs compared to allosauroids.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 69%

The fast and the frugal: Divergent locomotory strategies drive limb lengthening in theropod dinosaurs

et al. 2020

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Limb length, cursoriality and speed have long been areas of significant interest in theropod paleobiology, since locomotory capacity, especially running ability, is critical in the pursuit of prey and to avoid becoming prey. The impact of allometry on running ability, and the limiting effect of large body size, are aspects that are traditionally overlooked. Since several different non-avian theropod lineages have each independently evolved body sizes greater than any known terrestrial carnivorous mammal,~1000kg or more, the effect that such large mass has on movement ability and energetics is an area with significant implications for Mesozoic paleoecology. Here, using expansive datasets that incorporate several different metrics to estimate body size, limb length and running speed, we calculate the effects of allometry on running ability. We test traditional metrics used to evaluate cursoriality in nonavian theropods such as distal limb length, relative hindlimb length, and compare the energetic cost savings of relative hindlimb elongation between members of the Tyrannosauridae and more basal megacarnivores such as Allosauroidea or Ceratosauridae. We find that once the limiting effects of body size increase is incorporated there is no significant correlation to top speed between any of the commonly used metrics, including the newly suggested distal limb index (Tibia + Metatarsus/ Femur length). The data also shows a significant split between large and small bodied theropods in terms of maximizing running potential suggesting two distinct strategies for promoting limb elongation based on the organisms' size. For small and medium sized theropods increased leg length seems to correlate with a desire to increase top speed while amongst larger taxa it corresponds more closely to energetic efficiency and reducing foraging costs. We also find, using 3D volumetric mass estimates, that the Tyrannosauridae show significant cost of transport savings compared to more basal clades, indicating reduced energy expenditures during foraging and likely reduced need for hunting forays. This suggests that amongst theropods, hindlimb evolution was not dictated by one particular strategy. Amongst smaller bodied taxa the competing pressures of being

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Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 69%

The fast and the frugal: Divergent locomotory strategies drive limb lengthening in theropod dinosaurs

et al. 2020

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“…We now test that an extension of the same model to groups of moving animals gives the increased spatial cohesion typically observed in experiments. Our model draws from extensive work on collective motion [ 44 – 48 ] but, in contrast to most previous studies, our individuals do not react directly to each other. Instead, individuals estimate the quality of all points within a given maximum distance using a many-options version of the Bayesian model.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adversity magnifies the importance of social information in decision-making

Pérez‐Escudero

Polavieja

2017

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Decision-making theories explain animal behaviour, including human behaviour, as a response to estimations about the environment. In the case of collective behaviour, they have given quantitative predictions of how animals follow the majority option. However, they have so far failed to explain that in some species and contexts social cohesion increases when conditions become more adverse (i.e. individuals choose the majority option with higher probability when the estimated quality of all available options decreases). We have found that this failure is due to modelling simplifications that aided analysis, like low levels of stochasticity or the assumption that only one choice is the correct one. We provide a more general but simple geometric framework to describe optimal or suboptimal decisions in collectives that gives insight into three different mechanisms behind this effect. The three mechanisms have in common that the private information acts as a gain factor to social information: a decrease in the privately estimated quality of all available options increases the impact of social information, even when social information itself remains unchanged. This increase in the importance of social information makes it more likely that agents will follow the majority option. We show that these results quantitatively explain collective behaviour in fish and experiments of social influence in humans.

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“…Juveniles, less than 10-15 years of age [68,69] would still be in the zone where their long legs could be used to maximize top speed, potentially helping run down faster prey items. Beyond this it has been shown that amongst pack hunting animals employing strategy or communication between individuals can allow them to capture prey that is faster than any one individual [70]. Combining these factors we find that pack hunting would only increase the energetic savings differential even more dramatic between tyrannosaurs compared to allosauroids.…”

Section: Why Tyrannosaurids?mentioning

confidence: 69%

The fast and the frugal: Divergent locomotory strategies drive limb lengthening in theropod dinosaurs

Dececchi¹,

Mloszewska²,

Holtz³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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AbstractLimb length, cursoriality and speed have long been areas of significant interest in theropod paleobiology as locomotory capacity, especially running ability, is critical in not just in prey pursuit but also to avoid become prey oneself. One aspect that is traditionally overlooked is the impact of allometry on running ability and the limiting effect of large body size. Since several different non-avian theropod lineages have each independently evolved body sizes greater than any known terrestrial carnivorous mammal, ∼1000kg or more, the effect that such larger mass has on movement ability and energetics is an area with significant implications for Mesozoic paleoecology. Here using expansive datasets, incorporating several different metrics to estimate body size, limb length and running speed, to calculate the effects of allometry running We test both on traditional metrics used to evaluate cursoriality in non-avian theropods such as distal limb length, relative hindlimb length as well as comparing the energetic cost savings of relative hindlimb elongation between members of the Tyrannosauridae and more basal megacarnivores such as Allosauroids or Ceratosauridae. We find that once the limiting effects of body size increase is incorporated, no commonly used metric including the newly suggested distal limb index (Tibia + Metatarsus/ Femur length) shows a significant correlation to top speed. The data also shows a significant split between large and small bodied theropods in terms of maximizing running potential suggesting two distinct strategies for promoting limb elongation based on the organisms’ size. For small and medium sized theropods increased leg length seems to correlate with a desire to increase top speed while amongst larger taxa it corresponds more closely to energetic efficiency and reducing foraging costs. We also find, using 3D volumetric mass estimates, that the Tyrannosauridae show significant cost of transport savings compared to more basal clades, indicating reduced energy expenditures during foraging and likely reduced need for hunting forays. This suggests that amongst theropods while no one strategy dictated hindlimb evolution. Amongst smaller bodied taxa the competing pressures of being both a predator and a prey item dominant while larger ones, freed from predation pressure, seek to maximize foraging ability. We also discuss the implications both for interactions amongst specific clades and Mesozoic paleobiology and paleoecological reconstructions as a whole.

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Group chasing tactics: how to catch a faster prey

Cited by 54 publications

References 43 publications

The fast and the frugal: Divergent locomotory strategies drive limb lengthening in theropod dinosaurs

The fast and the frugal: Divergent locomotory strategies drive limb lengthening in theropod dinosaurs

Adversity magnifies the importance of social information in decision-making

The fast and the frugal: Divergent locomotory strategies drive limb lengthening in theropod dinosaurs

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