How Dangerous Were Sauropods?

Great video, Mike. I think people often mistakenly believe herbivorous animals are "nice" and most of them are nothing of the sort, and much of this stems from people casting carnivorous animals as "bad" guys in fiction and the herbivores are "good." Obligate carnivores just like herbivores have no choice in their diet.

How dangerous were sauopods? In Prehistoric Planet we had a chance to see giant sauropods fighting one another. What an amazing scene. What are your thoughts on this? How dangerous were sauropods. -Mike - Prehistoric Magazine

I agree with you.. no single predatory dinosaur could have taken down the largest sauropods. A pack maybe.

I can see that very well - all those pre mortem bone fractures observable with Allosaurus speaks a clear language.

Pretty fair assessment; the gentle giant image of Sauropods is kind of antequated nowadays. Modern megafauna, like elephants, are in all likelihood more intelligent than the giant Mesozoic herbivores, so imagine a pannicked sauropod going on instinct and the masses of damage it could inflict. Even if it wasn't riled up, if you happen to be in its way, that won't stop it from walking all over you. That's something I try to work into my novel writing; giving sauropods a powerful presence that can go from majestic to intimidating within moments.

So they kinda take after swans? In the sense that they won't go looking for a fight but they won't hold anything back if they need to fight.

I don’t think that sauropods would not use their teeth as a defense, because their teeth are very weak in combat. I do think that males with neck wrestle until one of them gives up the fight.

All things considered? Extremely dangerous. On a bad day and under bad circumstances, they would defend themselves violently without question. Imagine getting smashed with a tail or crushed outright. Your organs would pop like a pimple.

Well, if you at Africa the herbivores their are very aggressive. Also, I think everything happens for a reason dinosaurs and man never coexisted and there is a really good reason for that.