Re: "Brooding" Oviraptor

[Rich Travsky <rtravsky@UWYO.EDU>]

On Tue, 2 Jan 1996, Ronald Orenstein wrote:
> >I was a bit surprised, however, to note that the eggs were of a size and
> >quantity which seemed (to my eye) to comprise a larger total volume than the
> >Oviraptor's body cavity. Unless the animal were walking around with a
> >grotesquely distended abdomen prior to laying the eggs (if it was in fact
> >the layer), I just can't see how it could have produced the entire clutch at
> >one time. I suppose that it's possible that the eggs were dropped over an
> >extended period of time (is there any history of this in modern animals?) or
> >produced by more than one individual, but does anyone have any ideas,
> >opinions, way-out conjectures or solutions regarding the seeming problem?
> 
> If this is true it would match the situation in (for example) ostriches, in
> which a number of females lay in a single nst which is then brooded by the 
> male.
I'm not up on my ostriches. Are the females bigger? Eggs of such a volume 
sorta suggests a bit of dimorphism, tho I suppose this could be allayed by
having the eggs laid over an extended period of time.

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