Besides wolves, tigers can't tolerate two tigers in one mountain, and lions patrol the territory every day, so carnivores usually have a strong sense of territory. In addition to carnivores, many herbivores also have territorial consciousness. For example, hippopotamus, as a herbivore, will attack all animals that enter the territory (except elephants), including crocodiles, the "overlord in the water".
Of course, hippos are not the only ones who have territorial consciousness, and herbivores such as zebras, wild donkeys and buffaloes also have strong territorial consciousness. However, these animals are all we can observe. As an extinct animal, did dinosaurs have territorial consciousness? This should also start from the essence of territorial consciousness.
Why do animals have territorial consciousness?
Territorial consciousness is simply the act of protecting one's active area from other animals, which is actually caused by the pressure of survival, which comes from competition and the demand for food.
Among them, competition is easy to understand. Animals living in an area will always have animals close to their food habits and niches, so competition will arise. For example, the conflict between lions and hyenas comes from competition and mutual containment. On the one hand, it can give them an advantage in the competition, on the other hand, it can contain the number of each other.
So do herbivores. Although they eat the most accessible and abundant plants, once other herbivores appear in animal habitats, they will inevitably compete with them.
The demand for food is also very simple. In a fixed space, prey and plants are limited. At this time, the more the demand for food, the faster the consumption of space resources, which is obviously not what animals want to see. Therefore, out of competition and food, most animals are territorial.
Of course, there are exceptions, such as giraffes, who are tall and have no competition and food relationship with other herbivores, so they can tolerate all kinds of herbivores appearing in their own activity areas for food.
Therefore, the territorial consciousness is often that the more crowded the space is, the more obvious the animals in the space are, and the greater the demand for food is, the more obvious it is.
Did dinosaurs have territorial consciousness?
Dinosaurs ruled the earth for more than 654.38+0.6 billion years. At that time, they occupied a favorable niche on the earth with their huge size and numerous populations. Other animals can only survive in the cracks. For example, primitive mammals, about the size of mice, lived an omnivorous and insect-eating life in trees to reduce the positive dialogue with dinosaurs, and finally spread their branches and leaves after the dinosaurs became extinct.
From this perspective, the space in the dinosaur era was crowded, so dinosaurs should have territorial consciousness. But in my opinion, herbivorous dinosaurs probably didn't have territorial consciousness, while carnivorous dinosaurs did. Why do you say that? Let's talk separately:
0 1 herbivorous dinosaurs have no territorial consciousness?
According to the archaeological excavation of dinosaur fossils, most herbivorous dinosaurs lived in groups, which can be seen from the gathering degree of similar dinosaurs in the Conghua stone pit, but even so, they are likely to have no territorial consciousness because of the sufficient food and the demand for food.
First, let's take the Jurassic as an example. During the Jurassic period, the earth was warm and humid, which gave plants the conditions for survival and reproduction. Therefore, during the Jurassic period, the ground was covered by a large number of forests, which were composed of gymnosperms, angiosperms and ferns.
These three types of plants decorate the vegetation from the surface to the air, which also gives different herbivorous dinosaurs room to feed. Therefore, enough food can't actually produce competitive pressure, which is one of them.
Secondly, mammals are usually territorial, because their demand for food is higher than that of other animals of the same size. After all, mammals are warm-blooded animals and need a lot of energy to maintain their body temperature, so mammals need to eat about 65,438+00% of their body weight every day to maintain their basic needs. However, dinosaurs were warm animals and did not need to consume too much energy to maintain their body temperature, so dinosaurs only needed to eat about 1% of their body weight to meet their normal needs.
Therefore, in the dinosaur era, the earth's environment made vegetation very rich, and as a temperature-changing animal, the demand for food was relatively small, which made the plants in the dinosaur era completely meet the survival of herbivorous dinosaurs. Since there is no competition and food is abundant, territorial consciousness will naturally not exist.
Why did carnivorous dinosaurs have territorial consciousness?
Carnivorous dinosaurs themselves were carnivores. They are fierce and aggressive, which is their nature. As long as they are aggressive, they will take the initiative to attack other animals, which is an incentive for their territorial consciousness.
Secondly, let's look at the actual evidence. In fact, dinosaurs were not extinct, but most of them were extinct, because some osteophytes evolved into birds today.
In today's birds, many birds have "airspace consciousness". For the most common example, magpie is a typical representative. They have absolute control and guardianship over their own "airspace", and other birds will be driven away, just like some eagle raptors, and even attacked by magpies.
In addition, pheasants, pheasants and other birds also have a fixed range of activities and territorial awareness, which should be inherited from their ancestors, that is, bone dragons, belonging to theropod, and most of them are carnivorous dinosaurs. So from this perspective, carnivorous dinosaurs should have a strong sense of territory.
Dinosaurs are territorial, but they should be confined to carnivorous dinosaurs. As for herbivorous dinosaurs, they are not aggressive to other animals, and they are too lazy to take care of other dinosaurs when they have enough food, but carnivorous dinosaurs are different. Even if they have relatively enough food, strong initiative and aggression will make them have territorial consciousness.