Re: Multituberculates

[Phil Bigelow <bigelowp@juno.com>]

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 00:23:49 +0100 David Marjanovic
<david.marjanovic@gmx.at> writes:

> > I haven't heard of any adaptations for cold, but I'm not
> > sure if such things would show up in bones and teeth anyway.
> 
> Neither am I. 

Perhaps I should have instead written "pole adapted".  Although the
Mesozoic poles were by no means the ice boxes that they are today, they
were definitely considerably cooler and more seasonal than were the
temperate zones and the equatorial regions.

The occurrence of Cret. multituberculates above the paleo Arctic Circle
would prove that certain multis could tolerate seasonal change.  That may
be evidence that those particular species could hibernate.

And if those same late Cret. polar multis are also found in earliest
Paleocene units, then it may tell us something about the relative
importance of hibernation in the survival of small animals across the
Boundary.

<pb>
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