Re: Absurdity Blues, in both shoes

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 04:27 PM 4/9/98 -0600, Roger wrote:
>Hey All,
>
>Never say never. Deer, of nearly all species, occassionally have antlered
>females. There was just such an whitetail doe harvested in Missouri last
>fall, with a nice rack too.

See as Tom resists the urge to make a rude comment... :-)


>Picture this;
>
>Baryonx stands dead still in the shallow water, able to see through the
>water from above, like a kingfisher. A dumb, slow, carp-like fish

In particular, Mawsonia (the bigass coelacanth associated with the Baryonyx
remains).

>waddles
>up. Baryonx stabs fish, but more inportantly pins it to bottom. Fish
>thrashes, a little, Baryonx uses long snout to retrieve fish from muck.
>Baryonx stands dead still in the shallow water,......
>===================
>
>Feather for insulation. From heat? Wasn't it way warmer in dino time? A
>thin layer of feathers would help shade the body, would they not? Cool man,
>(ie Bart).

For smaller *endothermic* animals, ambient temperature isn't as significant
as it is for larger animals.  If you are a little animal, and are
warm-blooded, you need insulation to trap internally generated heat.  This
applies in the tropics or the desert as well as in colder climes.  This is
why there are very few small hairless mammals or featherless birds.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661