Re: "DINOSAUR SOCIAL WARMTH"

[Ronald Orenstein <ornstn@home.com>]

At 08:37 AM 07/04/01 -0400, Ray Stanford wrote:

> > Since many researchers feel birds are avian dinosaurs, this bluebird
> > behavior makes me wonder whether any Mesozoic dinosaur (non-avian 
> > or >avian) skeletal clusters might have been found, anywhere, that might 
> > be >interpreted (or re-interpreted) as suggesting mass death during such 
> > a >communal conserving of body warmth.

The following is cribbed from my book "Songbirds: Celebrating Nature's 
Voices":

"Kinglets, : Winter Wrens, : Brown Creepers and : European Treecreepers, : 
Long-tailed Tits and Bushtits huddle together for warmth in winter roosts. 
The need to roost can be so great that it is worth risking a bird's life. 
Owen Knorr once found over 100 : Pygmy Nuthatches huddled in the cavity of 
a pine tree. The birds were so closely packed together that some had 
suffocated."


--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886
International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116
1825 Shady Creek Court
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 3W2          mailto:ornstn@home.com