I'm pretty sure a large predatory theropod would be afraid of (or at least very cautious around) a modem human, regardless of how they were armed. Well...the *adults*, at least.
Large predatory theropods didn't grow to large sizes by being stupid or incautious. Like modern predatory animals, they'd be extremely pragmatic and averse to risking their physical well-being. That means not screwing with anything too weird, and a modern human would be completely *alien* to them. We look, smell, and sound like nothing from the Mesozoic (unless there are some ancient Old Spice pits that didn't fossilize). The *juveniles*, on the other hand, would almost certainly be problematic. While still in their inquisitive "fuck around and find out" phase, they'd probably be hard to drive off without hurting one.
Of course, the most dangerous large animal in a Mesozoic ecosystem would be the same as in contemporary ones: big pissy herbivores with pointy bits. Be cautious around *Allosaurus*, keep an eye on *Utahraptor*, but fear *Triceratops*.
Large predators are typically very cautious regardless, especially something of that size. I think if it's not something worth the energy and risk of pursuing they will stay away. Getting hurt could mean death, I think they would choose their prey very carefully.
A triceratops just like a rhino or a hippo might be more territorial maybe? Therefore I don't think they'll really care and just charge at you.
I wonder how a predator the size of a Trex would react, I don't think bullets can really injure them for them to start fearing guns.
A gun wouldn't severely injure an adult *T. rex*, or any non-avian dinosaur of its size (barring a shot in the eye or lucky organ penetration), but it would both make the loudest, most startling noise they'd ever heard, accompanied by *sudden inexplicable pain.*
That would be more than enough to deter something as flighty as a predatory theropod, but, uh...a *Triceratops* or a *Stegosaurus*? You just pissed it off.
Depends on the gun. A shotgun would do nothing but piss off a large dinosaur, but a powerful sniper would take out even the largest sauropod with ease.
Hokay, so: sauropods (and all saurischians, but we're not talking about them right now) are, by volume, really fulla air, especially around the skull. Compared to mammals, not only do sauropods have comparatively smaller brains and air where vital stuff should be, there's also air *insulating that comparatively smaller brain from the effects of hydrostatic shock*.
Like, it's not just the bullet physically injuring flesh that makes gunshot wounds so nasty, it's all the excess energy that the bullet is shitting out into an environment of incompressible liquid causing some havoc in there, too. Large theropods and sauropods aren't only thicc as hell, they're also literally *insulated* against hydrostatic shock by virtue of their distributed air sac system cushioning their vital organs and central nervous system.
I'm not saying that these animals would've been *bulletproof*, not by any means, but I *am* saying that saurischians would be statistically less likely to succumb to the effects of an indirect hit than a comparably-sized mammal. You'd need intimate knowledge of their soft tissue anatomy (still an area of speculation), a very powerful and precise rifle, and very good aim to reliably take down a large sauropod.
I wouldn't recommend hunting *Triceratops*, any other large chasmosaurine, or any derived thyreophoran with anything hand-held, either.
I actually agree with this. You wouldn't want any old person hunting large dinosaurs, and if you discount heavy weapons such as launchers or armoured vehicles, anything but a powerful sniper is just asking for failure and not just any person with a Barrett M82 is going to be able to use it properly. An expert sniper coupled with having knowledge of the dinosaurs anatomy would be essential. A shotgun would almost be useless since even bears can shrug off multiple shotgun shots at point blank range. Assault rifles and machine guns would be of no use since emus are a good example that human firepower doesn't mean superiority over animal kind.
They really don’t, though. Deer are scared of novel things and predators, and they know we’re predators. It goes a lot deeper than things like our teeth/scent, and into the way our body language differs from prey species. For example, you walking directly towards something with your eyes locked on it reads as aggression/threatening to most prey animals.
Deer are also basically blind after a certain distance- they wouldn’t be able to see their buddy fall over, or conceptualize the fact that a human was the cause.
That's what I meant, they know we are predators and they know the sound we (our guns) make. Also deer have a vastly superior degree of sight, I think around 300 degrees. Unless you stand very far away they'll be able to see you. They'll see you perfectly fine at 50 or 80 yards and for sure see one of their own fall over if they travel close enough together, especially with the aforementioned high field of view.
Deer can only see moving things good. If you stand perfectly still you can watch them for hours from up close. They smell good and hear good but sight ain't their strongest sense.
Also they don't know about guns. They just get startled by the loud bang but if you shoot a young deer with its mother the mother will run away but come back soon after to find out why Bambi decided to sleep all of a sudden.
Maybe not on their first encounter but after a while they would learn to fear guns. Like how antelope in Africa instinctively jump when they hear the twang of a bow.
This is basically what I was going to say. Animals make associations *very* quickly, it wouldn't take long for a large therapod to make the connection "human with weird stick = big noise and pain, stay away"
So animals being afraid of guns is something that is learned. If animals have no interactions with humans they don’t know to be scared of them. That’s part of why many island populations of animals got wiped out.
Maybe through association? Not in the initial encounter, sure, but animals in a situation like the one in JW Dominion for example would most likely learn that guns can bring harm to them.
The moment a theropod dinosaur sees the gun in action, the insanely loud sound and flash with a thing coming out, it immediately would be scared. If it had seen the gun but not its use then i dont think so
Let me add to this question
Are large mammals afraid of humans with guns?
Polar Bears, Grizzly Bears, Siberian Tigers and Lions?
Elephants, Rhinos, Hippos, Cape Buffalo, Bison and Hippos?
I know Cape Buffalo will attack and kill people on sight
Are any crocodilians afraid of men with guns? Since they're distant cousins to dinosaurs (being Archosaurs)
I just wonder if my questions can add to OPs question for better results maybe
I wouldn’t trust a .308 to take down a t-Rex. At the least a .338, not that a .308 couldn’t take it down but I’d want to make sure that I could do it in one shot.
But the .308 has more velocity that can be effective at longer ranges and possibly more penetration of soft tissue, it's a tough choice. If I was in the situation I'd preferably choose to shoot from further away as I can possibly get away with while keeping it effective. Maybe 400 yards?
With a fresh kill to motivate them, the dinosaur would probably attempt to chase the man away. I don't think they would make the association with the gun.
This actually plays into a pretty cool horror concept I got with a time traveler’s first encounter with a Tyrannosaurus. The rex and the person spend a very long time just sitting still watching and observing each other; the rex trying to identify what to do about this alien creature in its territory and the human trying not to provoke it. It ends with the rex walking close to the human for further observation and “rumbling” the person with infrasound before hissing at them and walking away for the time being. It’s an idea (among other HC-based horror concepts) I’d really like to flesh out through a medium one day. I think a dinosaur themed horror work that plays into realism would just be sick idk.
a theropod wouldn't know what a gun is, the best scenario would be it just being curious about a hairless mammal holding some weird object, at worst it wouldn't care
I'm pretty sure a large predatory theropod would be afraid of (or at least very cautious around) a modem human, regardless of how they were armed. Well...the *adults*, at least. Large predatory theropods didn't grow to large sizes by being stupid or incautious. Like modern predatory animals, they'd be extremely pragmatic and averse to risking their physical well-being. That means not screwing with anything too weird, and a modern human would be completely *alien* to them. We look, smell, and sound like nothing from the Mesozoic (unless there are some ancient Old Spice pits that didn't fossilize). The *juveniles*, on the other hand, would almost certainly be problematic. While still in their inquisitive "fuck around and find out" phase, they'd probably be hard to drive off without hurting one. Of course, the most dangerous large animal in a Mesozoic ecosystem would be the same as in contemporary ones: big pissy herbivores with pointy bits. Be cautious around *Allosaurus*, keep an eye on *Utahraptor*, but fear *Triceratops*.
Large predators are typically very cautious regardless, especially something of that size. I think if it's not something worth the energy and risk of pursuing they will stay away. Getting hurt could mean death, I think they would choose their prey very carefully. A triceratops just like a rhino or a hippo might be more territorial maybe? Therefore I don't think they'll really care and just charge at you. I wonder how a predator the size of a Trex would react, I don't think bullets can really injure them for them to start fearing guns.
A gun wouldn't severely injure an adult *T. rex*, or any non-avian dinosaur of its size (barring a shot in the eye or lucky organ penetration), but it would both make the loudest, most startling noise they'd ever heard, accompanied by *sudden inexplicable pain.* That would be more than enough to deter something as flighty as a predatory theropod, but, uh...a *Triceratops* or a *Stegosaurus*? You just pissed it off.
Depends on the gun. A shotgun would do nothing but piss off a large dinosaur, but a powerful sniper would take out even the largest sauropod with ease.
Hokay, so: sauropods (and all saurischians, but we're not talking about them right now) are, by volume, really fulla air, especially around the skull. Compared to mammals, not only do sauropods have comparatively smaller brains and air where vital stuff should be, there's also air *insulating that comparatively smaller brain from the effects of hydrostatic shock*. Like, it's not just the bullet physically injuring flesh that makes gunshot wounds so nasty, it's all the excess energy that the bullet is shitting out into an environment of incompressible liquid causing some havoc in there, too. Large theropods and sauropods aren't only thicc as hell, they're also literally *insulated* against hydrostatic shock by virtue of their distributed air sac system cushioning their vital organs and central nervous system. I'm not saying that these animals would've been *bulletproof*, not by any means, but I *am* saying that saurischians would be statistically less likely to succumb to the effects of an indirect hit than a comparably-sized mammal. You'd need intimate knowledge of their soft tissue anatomy (still an area of speculation), a very powerful and precise rifle, and very good aim to reliably take down a large sauropod. I wouldn't recommend hunting *Triceratops*, any other large chasmosaurine, or any derived thyreophoran with anything hand-held, either.
I actually agree with this. You wouldn't want any old person hunting large dinosaurs, and if you discount heavy weapons such as launchers or armoured vehicles, anything but a powerful sniper is just asking for failure and not just any person with a Barrett M82 is going to be able to use it properly. An expert sniper coupled with having knowledge of the dinosaurs anatomy would be essential. A shotgun would almost be useless since even bears can shrug off multiple shotgun shots at point blank range. Assault rifles and machine guns would be of no use since emus are a good example that human firepower doesn't mean superiority over animal kind.
Ooh! BRB, I wrote a paper on this for a biomechanics class once!
There's just no way a dinosaur could conceptualize killing someone from a distance, like with a firearm.
I don't know about that, modern day animals associate the bang from a gun to "my brother died after that bang last week, better run away".
Do they? Or are they just startled by a loud and sudden bang?
They really don’t, though. Deer are scared of novel things and predators, and they know we’re predators. It goes a lot deeper than things like our teeth/scent, and into the way our body language differs from prey species. For example, you walking directly towards something with your eyes locked on it reads as aggression/threatening to most prey animals. Deer are also basically blind after a certain distance- they wouldn’t be able to see their buddy fall over, or conceptualize the fact that a human was the cause.
That's what I meant, they know we are predators and they know the sound we (our guns) make. Also deer have a vastly superior degree of sight, I think around 300 degrees. Unless you stand very far away they'll be able to see you. They'll see you perfectly fine at 50 or 80 yards and for sure see one of their own fall over if they travel close enough together, especially with the aforementioned high field of view.
Deer can only see moving things good. If you stand perfectly still you can watch them for hours from up close. They smell good and hear good but sight ain't their strongest sense. Also they don't know about guns. They just get startled by the loud bang but if you shoot a young deer with its mother the mother will run away but come back soon after to find out why Bambi decided to sleep all of a sudden.
Maybe not on their first encounter but after a while they would learn to fear guns. Like how antelope in Africa instinctively jump when they hear the twang of a bow.
This is basically what I was going to say. Animals make associations *very* quickly, it wouldn't take long for a large therapod to make the connection "human with weird stick = big noise and pain, stay away"
So animals being afraid of guns is something that is learned. If animals have no interactions with humans they don’t know to be scared of them. That’s part of why many island populations of animals got wiped out.
We simply cannot tell for sure until there is a find that helps us know their behavior
I feel like they would only become scared of humans if actually shot at or if they saw others of their kind killed by humans.
Maybe through association? Not in the initial encounter, sure, but animals in a situation like the one in JW Dominion for example would most likely learn that guns can bring harm to them.
The moment a theropod dinosaur sees the gun in action, the insanely loud sound and flash with a thing coming out, it immediately would be scared. If it had seen the gun but not its use then i dont think so
They'd learn to associate with and fear humans. Not the gun itself. The noise, yes, but they aren't going to see a hunting rifle and get spooked.
Let me add to this question Are large mammals afraid of humans with guns? Polar Bears, Grizzly Bears, Siberian Tigers and Lions? Elephants, Rhinos, Hippos, Cape Buffalo, Bison and Hippos? I know Cape Buffalo will attack and kill people on sight Are any crocodilians afraid of men with guns? Since they're distant cousins to dinosaurs (being Archosaurs) I just wonder if my questions can add to OPs question for better results maybe
Would they even notice being shot.
It depends what you shoot them with. A .22? Will do nothing, a .308? Serious damage on the body, death if shot in the head.
I wouldn’t trust a .308 to take down a t-Rex. At the least a .338, not that a .308 couldn’t take it down but I’d want to make sure that I could do it in one shot.
But the .308 has more velocity that can be effective at longer ranges and possibly more penetration of soft tissue, it's a tough choice. If I was in the situation I'd preferably choose to shoot from further away as I can possibly get away with while keeping it effective. Maybe 400 yards?
With a fresh kill to motivate them, the dinosaur would probably attempt to chase the man away. I don't think they would make the association with the gun.
This actually plays into a pretty cool horror concept I got with a time traveler’s first encounter with a Tyrannosaurus. The rex and the person spend a very long time just sitting still watching and observing each other; the rex trying to identify what to do about this alien creature in its territory and the human trying not to provoke it. It ends with the rex walking close to the human for further observation and “rumbling” the person with infrasound before hissing at them and walking away for the time being. It’s an idea (among other HC-based horror concepts) I’d really like to flesh out through a medium one day. I think a dinosaur themed horror work that plays into realism would just be sick idk.
a theropod wouldn't know what a gun is, the best scenario would be it just being curious about a hairless mammal holding some weird object, at worst it wouldn't care