Re: Magnosaurus & matrilineal dinosaurs

For those seemingly horrified

Not horrified, surprised.

by the proposition of female dinosaurs (ceratopsians et al.) being dominant (in sensu strictu,

O. Sensu stricto.

dinosaurology is ideological, contrary to Keith Parsons et al.),

Could you explain? Haven't read Parsons et al..

an ethnography of dinosaurology

I thought you want to do dinosaurology onlist, rather than an ethnography of it?

[...] To point to extant avialian theropods, where males are often larger

In many species, especially predatory ones AFAIK, the females are considerably larger.

and more colourful, 65 million years after the K/T event(s), is meaningless.

A violation of actualism. OK, the present isn't the key to the past, the past is the key to the present and to the future, but please explain.

Their morphogenesis, breeding biologies, etc., are the result, I believe, of the catastrophic events of K/T.

Again, please explain or tell us which paper we're supposed to wait for.

using juveniles to chase prey into the reach of larger, slower adults,

Why slower?

Herbivores would need foliage to maximize calories and energy.

The calorie is the outdated unit of energy, why "and"?

Fruits and seeds are better than leaves in this respect, but we can safely assume that big herbivores would never find enough of them and therefore eat leaves/needles (or grass which didn't exist).

Linked to these is female philopatry

So that's the ecological term for patriotism? :-) If so, that's wrong when the foliage "migrates". In the Serengeti all big herbivores AFAIK are not in the least territorial because they have to follow the rain all the time. There's no way all known dinosaurs, or all ceratopsians and theropods, could have been territorial (some certainly were).

My other point [...]: matrilineality among dinosaurs is perfectly logical: the physiological demands of nurturing hatchlings, providing them with food, etc., means the females had to be larger, stronger, and more survivable than males.

But not necessarily equipped with more display structures. In birds of prey today the females are larger and stronger, possibly for this reason (avoiding intraspecific competition is another). In crocodiles, they are not. In lots of mammals the males are much bigger.