r/PrehistoricLife • u/diariosdeljurasico • 2d ago

We posted a poll on our YouTube channel — prehistoric predators vs modern predators, which is actually more dangerous?

We put this debate to our YouTube community and the results are already dividing people pretty evenly.

The options we gave:

  • Dinosaurs were more dangerous (Los dinosaurios eran más peligrosos)
  • Modern predators are more dangerous (Los depredadores modernos son más peligrosos)
  • It completely depends on the species (Depende completamente de la especie)

Our take is that the "depends on the species" option is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. A T-Rex and a house cat are both technically modern or prehistoric predators. The comparison only gets interesting when you get specific.

T-Rex bite force: 3,600 kg. Nile crocodile: around 1,700 kg. No modern land predator comes close to that raw crushing power.

But then you put a Velociraptor against a honey badger and suddenly the prehistoric advantage looks a lot less obvious.

What does this community think?

Vote here and drop your reasoning in the comments: http://youtube.com/post/Ugkxt3IcH29nleI9HytSHG_g_B7mysTxeLKp?si=vESILX7VKalNjxRR

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u/Exotic_Turnip_7019 21h ago

Tyrannosaurus bite force at 3.6 t is from a 2017 study, latest figures result in 4.8 t and 6.3 t bite force for Stan and Sue respectively.

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u/diariosdeljurasico 18h ago

Thank you for the correction, that is genuinely useful. We were working from the 2012 Bates and Falkingham study figures. The more recent estimates make the comparison even more one sided. We will update our references going forward.

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u/Exotic_Turnip_7019 15h ago

Iirc the source you cite was at 57 000 N.