re: "Brooding" Oviraptor

["Dan Lipkowitz" <lipkowit@midway.uchicago.edu>]

Of course, the many people who pointed out that depositing a clutch over an
extended period of time is characteristic avian behavior are quite correct,
and I'm ashamed that it slipped my mind at the time of my posting. In my own
sad defence, I'd like to point out that the find at least calls into
question the "egg-laying dance" which Jack Horner and Betty Quinn put on a
few years back (I think it was Jack and BQ, at any rate), which demonstrates
dropping of all the eggs in a clutch at the same time. Then again, they
weren't trying to demonstrate maniraptor behavior (and it was darned amusing
to watch, at any rate).

An interesting aspect of the specimen which I don't believe has been
discussed so far (I'm not certain whether it was written up in the articles
I read, but it was labelled on the mounted display) is that there is a
thickening of bone on one of the arms (the right ulna, I think, though I
won't swear to it) where the limb was broken and healed. Not a particularly
rare discovery, but worthy of mention.

  Dan Lipkowitz