Re: K-T survivors (hadrosaurs?, mammals & birds)

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

>       Now to David's post.  There is no reason to expect an explosion of
> hadrosaur populations.  One or two surviving species could have held on
> within the shrinking fern habitats, as the flowering plants recovered and
> [...]

I need not repeat that the fern spike is a spike in comparison to both below
and above it. There were lots of angiosperms before, heaps died out at the
K-T, and gymnosperms retained a pretty dominant position for tens of Ma to
come. Unlike the Cenozoic, the Cenophytic came slowly.

>       But for all we know, they could have adapted to the plant situation,
> only to succumb to hordes of egg-eaters expanding into their territory.

Hordes? From where should such hordes have come suddenly... hordes in
comparison to before? Destroying big, thick-shelled, guarded eggs? I think
at that time the recent loss of many mammal species at the K-T should have
had more consequences than the just beginning laurasiatherian radiation
(Glires at least, maybe Euarchontoglires overall, was originally an Asian
phenomenon).

Well. Let's W4tP... :-)