Re: Dinofest notes

[GSP1954 <GSP1954@aol.com>]

Just a correction concerning Larry Martin's talk on brooding oviraptors at DF.
He said there is no contact between the skeleton and eggs. Fortunately Mark
Norell was there to state that the feet, gastralia and sternum are in direct
contact with eggs. Therefore, the eggs were PARTLY exposed and body plus
ground incubation is nearly certain, an ideal intermediate between the
reptilian and avian systems. There may have been additional body-egg contact,
shifting sand may have come between post-mortem. 

Larry's idea that alvarezsaurs may have been using their arms to dig up, carry
and crack into big thick shelled dino eggs makes a fair amount of sense. 

GSPaul