Re: Cretaceous taeniodont

[John Bois <jbois@umd5.umd.edu>]

On Fri, 9 Apr 2004, Richard W. Travsky wrote:

> Multi month stays? How many species do we know that we can say this about?

Ostrich, rhea, emu.  Of course we don't know about Mesozoic dinosaurs--but
it has to be at least a month for any large species.

> Would not large species, especially a large group, strip the area of food?
> Would lay-and-forget be more perdominant?

Many immigrant species stock up on food for the incubation period--so, not
necessarily.  Others (emu) go into a dormant period--I think this is
unlikey if nest defense was the method of protection, however.

Lay-and-forget?  In my view, this strategy is limited to species that can
fulfill a narrow range of conditions: small eggs layed at depth (to avoid
predation); tiny eggs layed in litter (concealed to avoid predation);
small eggs layed at depth in sand only (to avoid drowning); species that
can lay remotely (e.g., most sea turtles to swamp local predators--note,
this strategy unlikely available to mainland dinos due to broad guild of
potential nest predators, e.g., monitors, other dinos, winged dinos,
winged pterosaurs, mammals, etc., etc.).

> As a team no but as a herd perhaps.

Not a reason to exclude mammals from entering a specific size-determined
niche (i.e., mammals flock, too).