2002 Avian theropod book

[Sepickering@aol.com]

   D.C. Deeming, ed., 2002. Avian incubation: behaviour, environment, and evolution (Oxford University Press), 421pp. An excellent volume which, coupled with the Gauthier/G.S. Paul volumes (and papers mentioned previously by me), provides food-for-thought for those who have freed themselves of the franchises of Horrorwood. (Remember: it was Mr. Crichton who walked away from the third film, after the "hype" of press conferences etc., after seeing what anti-intellectual syncophants were capitulating to, and what they had done to his vision with the second film. The "ideas" (they are not worthy of the designation) now being developed are an amalgamation of BEAVER CLEAVER GOES TO WAR and THE FLINTSTONES, coupled with (I kid you not) eager, over-cocktails tongue wagging re: "awesome merchandising".)
   One of the contributors to this volume is the late William Calder (he died this past April, a genuine loss), an authority on the scaling and biomechanics of trochilid theropods ("hummingbirds" for the ill-informed). Together with Carol Beuchat and E.J. Braun, in 1990 he participated in the writing of an excellent paper on the osmoregulation and energy balance  of these theropods, work recently amplified by Todd McWhorter and of interest to those who have queries re: basal metabolic rates of dinosaurs living in pre-K/T arid environments (viz. water conservation and energy requirements). Bill Calder, and his wife, were indefatigible supporters of breaking down the gender walls (the "macho" mystique perpetrated by wandering goldfish in straw hats oh-so-eager to be on the "cutting edge"), so that women/people-of-colour (all colours) could have opportunities in the organismic biological sciences (and this includes, by the way, paleontology).