RE:Suckling Sauropods and Pigeons' Milk

[MarkSabercat@aol.com]

No, I don't think hatchling sauropods would have achieved this phenominal 
projected weight gain by nursing from mammalian-style milk glands either, but 
there is an alternative: nutritive secretions from the proventriculus or 
"crop". Several of the Columbiformes have evolved a technique of feeding the 
young from specialized glands within the crop that secrete a nutritious 
substance known as "pigeon's milk" ; this protein-rich formula, although 
chemically not the same as mammals' milk, provides the hatchlings with 
nutrition (and probably some immunogens) that help them to grow fast. The 
proventriculus of female sauropods may secondarily evolved this capability 
when sauropodomorphs reached a certain point in their evolution in which 
rapid weight gain began creating a survival advantage. I agree with the other 
commentors' remarks about the hatchlings probably being at least omnivorous 
during their first few months--those little teeth could have been effective 
in nabbing any arthropods that infested the nest. Suckling Sauropods! This 
would surely have been Sylvester the Cat's epithet instead of "Sufferin' 
Succotash!", had he lived in the Mesozoic---

Tyrannosaurus
Mark Hallett
marksabercat@yahoo.com