Re: Sauroparental care

[Graydon <oak@uniserve.com>]

On Tue, Dec 23, 2003 at 03:04:29PM -0000, Craven, David scripsit:
> It's not unknown for animals to near-starve themselves when rearing young.
> So this is not a given.

A. No.
Q. Should I top reply?

> From: Richard W. Travsky [mailto:rtravsky@uwyo.edu] 
>
> One thought that occurred to me is that, for sauropods at least, is that
> creatures that size would need a great deal of food themselves. Would they
> not strip the immediate area if they were hanging around to provide care?

There's probably a great deal of niche partitioning going on between an
adult sauropod and a hatchling -- the hatchling is much smaller, and
can't reach as high off the ground.   It's presumably nibbling on ferns,
while the parents are pushing over/denuding trees.

-- 
oak@uniserve.com | Uton we hycgan    hwaer we ham agen,
                 | ond thonne gedhencan    he we thider cumen.
                 |   -- The Seafarer, ll. 117-118.