JACOBSONS' QUERIES

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

Howdy folks,

I'm reading Raptor Red - only when I'm too tired to read anything I have to
think about though. Generally entertaining.. that's all I best say. Where's this
leading?

Uncle Bob 'ZZ Top' Bakker (it gets worse) goes into a bit where one of the
characters (a _Utahraptor_ if you've been down a burrow for the last couple of
years) does a flehman reaction in response to other dinosaurs in the area -
bringing the jacobsons' organs into play. So here's my problem. I wasn't aware
that JOs are present in archosaurs, so: do crocodiles have them, and do birds
have them? If so it's news to me! I know that they are widespread amongst
mammals (well known in cattle, horses, cats and - yes - whales), and I remember
reading a bit about soft-part synapomorphies in the Tetrapod Phylogeny book Vol.
1 about them not being present in turtles. So please help.. cheers.

BIT MORE ON DRINKER

A while ago somewhere here said that Bakker had _loads_ of _Drinker_ material,
like, more than 40 specimens worth, and that this showed that _Drinker_ had a
pointed beak, reversible ankles etc etc. Much the same is, as I've said
previously, touted in the Psihoyos book, and Bakker even provides a life
restoration. Something I haven't seen mentioned is that, on a TV documentary,
Bakker presents reconstructed pes and metapodials as 'belonging to a new
hypsilophodont' and, furthermore, 'the first dinosaur known to have lived in a
_burrow_'. The show, the bit with Bakker shot in his own house (complete with
wagon wheels and bits of cars in the garden, various fossils and equipment
covering the table in the main room, and drawings of rearing stegosaurs next to
the kitchen sink), was broadcast over here in '93, as part of a special dinosaur
season inspired by, well, you know.. that film.. *that* film.

"Oh - I've dropped my solid gold disposable lighter.. oh it's down by these
tanks of nitro-glycerin, I'll just light a match to get a better look.."

DARREN NAISH