Re: Egg-Eating Teeth and Responses of Bois

[KiernanCR@aol.com]

Jaime Headden wrote:

>>   There is specialized dentition used to regard the
 ability to crush objects for food. I think I posted on
this. It isn't _required_, but it isn't neccessarily out of the picture.<<

Yes. I wasn't arguing that specialized dentition is never important in 
animals that utilize crushing (In a case close to home, I'd cite the mosasaur 
_Globidens_). I asked Bois if, since he cited specialized dentition as 
evidence in favor of his hypothesis, he could provide instances where late 
Maestrichtian mammals had evolved dentition specifically suited to ovivory. 
He said no. So I said that he shouldn't list the appearance of newly 
specialized dentition as evidence in his favor. Indeed, it seems that most 
extant egg-eaters are generalists, with no particular adaptation for 
egg-eating, per se.

Caitlin R. Kiernan