Re: Homing Pigeons? Try Homing Crocodiles...

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

Richard W. Travsky writes: 

> On Fri, 28 Sep 2007, Dann Pigdon wrote:
> > Guy Leahy writes:
> > > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7015561.stm Using phylogenetic 
> > > bracketing, it would seem that
> > > homing instinct is deeply nested within archosaurs,
> > > since both birds and crocodiles exhibit this behavior.
> >
> > Either that, or the reason crocs and birds survived is because they had 
> > this ability, while other archosaurs didn't.
>
> Survived - what? The big impact? I'm not sure I see how a homing
> ability would aid in surviving that...

Survived. Period. As opposed to being extinct (which embodies a distinct 
lack of survival). 

The point is that we can't assume that anything extant crocs and birds have 
in common must also have been present in dinosaurs, due to the simple fact 
that the former two still exist, while the latter are extinct. It may have 
been the case that the surviving species managed to survive because of 
adaptations they had (and still have) that dinosaurs didn't. 

___________________________________________________________________ 

Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist              geo cities.com/dannsdinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia             heretichides.soffiles.com
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