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>Another conclusion I would like to
make is that an animal's gape has
nothing to do with its ability to gnaw into a hard-shelled egg. But I can't. I don't know how the armadillo get into the egg. In the past, when feeding some Varanid
lizards, I have had to use a variety of egg sizes (ranging from small to extra
jumbo) because of their inabilty to crack the shell of the eggs that were too
large for the animals gape (which is considerable). However, I will admit
that armadillos are likely probably more "inventive" (relatively
greater capacity for insight learning) than varanids.
Also, and I raised this point before in an old stealthy oviphagus thread,
there is (was at that time at least), no evidence in the fossil record of
eutherian mammals having preyed on dinosaur eggs. My guess is that if mammals
were preying upon dinosaur eggs in the fashion that was ascribed to the hairy
armadillo, that the same event/process that led to the fossilization of a
dino-nesting site, would similarily preserve some evidence of this form of
predation in/and the network of underground tunnels.
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