Re: DINOSAUR digest 3384

["T. Michael Keesey" <keesey@gmail.com>]

On 11/12/05, K and T Dykes <ktdykes@arcor.de> wrote:
> <<I guess those (individual) shorebirds/waterbirds that happened to be in
> the water at that moment survived the heat pulse...>>
>
> As long as they weren't wearing teeth.  That puzzles the authors, as toothy
> diving birds had all the qualifications demanded by the scenario for
> surviving.  I suppose being in much of North America was a pretty bad idea
> (and some would say still is), but that surely can't have been their entire
> uppermost Maastrichtian range.

As I alluded to under this comic: http://www.parryandcarney.com/comic/8.html
...I've yet to see anybody come up with a decent explanation for why
crown clade avians made it through while other ornithothoracean birds
didn't. Teeth aren't a good criterion, because some enantiornitheans
were toothless.

I suppose the sample size is too small to be able to tell much for
now, but if it continues to grow as amazingly fast as it has the last
couple of decades, there may be hope....
--
Mike Keesey
The Dinosauricon: http://dino.lm.com
Parry & Carney: http://parryandcarney.com