Re: Sauroparental care

[Pluto77189@aol.com]

Well, as illustrated in the recent dinosaur special, the sauropod nests were 
"open faced."  

Is there PROOF that they were left open like that?  I assume that the 
discernable "mound" structure was evident in fossil form and not simply 
assumed.  

If an animal is creating a mound, and leaving its eggs exposed, they are 
exposed for a reason--and I'm sure they weren't turning the eggs. 

I can't think of any "drop and leave" species that DON'T bury their eggs, and 
even crocs don't simply bury them, they build mounds.  

Funny, the only birds that don't "care" for their young build elaborate mounds 
to incubate their eggs much like crocodiles, testing the temperature and 
removing/adding compost, allowing the heat of decomposition to incubate their 
eggs rather than their body heat.  

I havn't put much thought into this, but I wonder if the behavior(of the birds) 
was ancestral rather than a recent adaptation.  It seem to be strikingly 
crocodilian, even just the buried egg alone is kinda "un-birdy".  
E