I'm watching Terra Nova, a story about people who journey back in time to when there were dinosaurs. I can't believe that when someone shoots at these predatory carnivore dinosaurs with M-16 rifles, the dinosaurs act like it's nothing. Is that realistic? I would expect a single 5.56mm round to ruin a dinosaur's day. I would expect one round to cause a life threatening injury even to a dinosaur. At the very least, it should discourage the dinosaur significantly (in spite of it's size and weight). Does anyone disagree?
I suppose it would depend on the type of dinosaurs being shot at, how thick their skin is and muscle density etc. Also I thought the weaponry in Terra Nova was sonic not ballistic?
I don't think thick skin would give any dinosaur much protection. 5.56mm rounds are designed to tumble as they travel through the air; they bounce off bones and shred muscle. It's a fantasy to think we would ever see real dinosaurs. But if we did, our weapons would be very effective against them. The problem would be that we would shoot a tyrannosaurus Rex, and we would feel bad watching it lay on the ground suffering. Then it would eat the first medic that tries to tend to it's wounds.
I think it wouldn't feel like more than a sting to the large ones, unless you hit them in the face. Their nerves are spread farther apart than they would be in a smaller animal, and the vital organs are beneath skin and fat and huge layers of muscle. Maybe a .50 caliber rifle would kill them, but I doubt it would have much stopping power if the animal was charging at you.
So there are two separate issues. There is the pain that the dinosaur perceives, from the bullet. Second, there is the physical damage caused by the bullet. I can believe that some dinosaurs might ignore the pain. However, I think that a bullet could penetrate muscle, puncture a vital organ or sever its spinal cord. A few shots to the dinosaurs face or mouth might not necessarily break through the skull bone (but it could). A bullet could take out a tooth or an eye. As for charging power, the bullet would have to take out a knee cap or disrupt muscular/nerve control of the muscles to stop a charging dinosaur.
They might be more scared of the noise. Probably a couple fireworks is all you need for protection. A sufficient amount of tranquilizing agent might also work, that's what they use on elephants.
Though I'm no expert at either ursine or dinosaur physiology, I do know enough to know that I would want something substantially heavier than an M-16 if I needed to stop a charging grizzly bear.
A good can of pepper spray would stop a charging grizzly bear. However I wouldn't trust it to stop a large dinosaur. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
How do we even know that dinosaurs would want to eat us? Sharks only bite humans by mistake; but sharks don't like the taste of humans. Maybe dinosaurs won't like the way humans taste either.
Tell that to people that have survived ship wrecks and spent a few days in the water with the sharks circling and picking them off. Any hungry carnivore will eat humans given a chance and who knows what taste good or bad to any animal.
Give me a .577 Tyrannosaur! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! [video=youtube;wrImp-ek3bI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrImp-ek3bI[/video]
