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I went to the Natural History Museum in London today. I saw the dinosaur exhibition, and in the exhibition was this image, of an Allosaurus attacking a Diplodocus:

Allosaurus attacking Diplodocus

Image by John Sibbick

This scenario seems unlikely to me. It feels a bit like a lion attacking an elephant - the size is a natural defence. Elephants have no natural predators.

Did large herbivorous dinosaurs have any predators?

Suma
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Dave Hillier
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  • Accidentally posted this before I'd finished writing it, apologies. – Dave Hillier Oct 13 '12 at 20:47
  • I'm also not sure how to phrase this question best... but I this imaged was presented as a scientific fact and I doubt it is realistic. – Dave Hillier Oct 13 '12 at 20:48
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    This is not completely accurate. We ALL have predators. Some of those predators are smaller than us. Microbes, parasites. –  Oct 14 '12 at 01:09
  • @woodchips Its probably implied to mean [true predators](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predation#True_predation). – Stefan Oct 14 '12 at 16:02
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    While a full-grown elephant may not have any predators, lions do kill very young elephants as well as sick and old ones. The same is probably true for dinosaurs. – hdhondt Oct 14 '12 at 23:35
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    @Stefan - I KNOW what the implication is. However, not all predators are larger than their prey. A pack of wolves can kill and devour a moose. A school of piranha are predators too, as are a swarm of army ants on the move, as is arguably a fatal viral infection. –  Oct 15 '12 at 00:18
  • I doubt it will make a full answer, but I have seen a BCC popular science [The Ballad of Big Al](http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/tv_radio/big_al/big_al3.shtml) and the claim there was "The sauropod footprints ... [with] groups of carnivorous dinosaurs - probably Allosaurus - which seem to be following them. Some of these trackways ... seem to show a hunt in progress." – Suma Oct 15 '12 at 07:20
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    @woodchips What is commonly understood as predators does not include viruses and bacteria. And if we reduce predators to things that kill other things(intentionally or unintentionally) everything is a predator making the definition pointless. – Stefan Oct 15 '12 at 15:15
  • @woodchips - Piranha are mostly scavengers taking primarily injured fish that are mostly smaller than itself. There are some areas where the food is scarce enough that they will attack anything that comes into the water but that is not their natural state. – Chad Oct 15 '12 at 16:37
  • We are splitting hairs on the exact definition of a predator, and how often it falls in that role. My point was that there are animals that will kill (and eat an elephant.) This is especially true if you include humans, who truly do act as predators of elephants. –  Oct 15 '12 at 21:44

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According to Wikipedia

There is dramatic evidence for allosaur attacks on Stegosaurus, including an Allosaurus tail vertebra with a partially healed puncture wound that fits a Stegosaurus tail spike, and a Stegosaurus neck plate with a U-shaped wound that correlates well with an Allosaurus snout.[86]

Citation #86 is

Carpenter, Kenneth; Sanders, Frank; McWhinney, Lorrie A.; and Wood, Lowell (2005). "Evidence for predator-prey relationships: Examples for Allosaurus and Stegosaurus". In Carpenter, Kenneth (ed.). The Carnivorous Dinosaurs. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. pp. 325–350. ISBN 978-0-253-34539-4.

The Black Hills Institute appear to be selling a Camarasaurus sp. Tibia with Bite Marks - Fossil Replica of which they say

Camarasaurus was a long-necked (sauropodmorph) dinosaur that lived during the Jurassic age. Camarasaurus reached lengths of 60 feet (18 m) and weighed up to 18 tons (16 tonnes)! One end of this ‘teething bone’ has been completely removed by predation, probably a feeding or teething Allosaurus.

RedGrittyBrick
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  • You will probably also find lions injured by elephants. Random encounters not related to hunts, "stupidity", illness ... Nothing that makes elephants lion prey. – mcandril Oct 15 '12 at 10:35
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    @mcandril: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2ZW0EvMzSM and [Over the 4 years, we observed a total of 74 elephants killed by lions](http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/life_history/risk/lion_elephant_predation_2006.html). Re the actual question here. It depends what we mean by "large" and whether we include juveniles. – RedGrittyBrick Oct 15 '12 at 13:42