DESERT DESCENDANTS

["D.W.Naish" <dwn194@soton.ac.uk>]

>  If a future 
> paleontologist found skeletons of a jackrabbit, a spadefoot toad, a 
> tortoise and a coyote in desert sediments, could they then conclude that 
> lagomorphs, anapsids, anurans and canids all evolved in desert 
> conditions? Or if this future paleontologist found fossils of ground 
> sloths in florida, and mammoths in south america, could they justifiably 
> conclude that these were the ancestral homelands of the group?     Nick L

With regard to the Gobi ceratopians, Nick, I see your point, but your above
examples are not valid: all the taxa mentioned above have older representatives
from elsewhere in time and space. Psittacosaurs and protoceratopids don't.

"You notice a lot of errors in an animal running backwards"
Shame you didn't take notice of them.

DARREN NAISH