Re: Cretaceous taeniodont

["Eric Martichuski" <herewiss13@hotmail.com>]

> If size gave immunity from predation, why didn't this fuel an arms race as
> it seems to have done in dinosaurs.  IMHO dinosaurs play a way better game
> in the large arena--body plan-wise.

Which is exactly why there was no arms race.  Just where were mammals 
supposed to go?  At any larger sizes, they not only get competition from 
other small-to-mid sized dinos; they also get placed on the menu of the 
_predators of those mid-sized dinos.  Try and grow _larger_ and you have the 
same problem...in spades.

No one has yet been able to give me a really good answer as to why the 
megafauna of the Mesozoic was so _mega_...but the fact that is was (and that 
it ran the gamut all the way down the line),seems like the obvious candidate 
for whatever _did_  put the apparently pretty hefty selection cap on the 
size of early mammals.

It's like having an army with BB guns...and the other side has A-bombs, Uzis 
_and_ BB guns.  You try and develop an Uzi and they're _still_ ahead of you 
(with more trumps in storage).

Eric
______________________________________________________________________
"There is no other wisdom,
And no other hope for us
But that we grow wise. -- Diane Duane
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