Re: don' t think that flies

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

Quoting "Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>:

> 
> On Mon, 24 Nov 2008, Dann Pigdon wrote:
> > Quoting Graydon <oak@uniserve.com>:
> >> On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 11:20:31PM +0100, David Marjanovic scripsit:
> >>>> Nest Structure for Sauropods: Sedimentary Criteria for Recognition ...
> >>>> PALAIOS; February 2004
> >>>
> >>> Oops.
> >>
> >> That's not evidence against piling heaps of vegetation over the nests
> >> and walking away, is it?
> >>
> >> It's evidence against a buried-in-sand, sea-turtle style nest; it's not
> >> evidence against a Mallee fowl style nests, though.
> >
> > The problem with burying eggs in vegetation is that it heats up as it 
> > rots. Mallee fowls and megapodes have to constantly tend their nest 
> > mound, checking the temperature inside them with their beaks and either 
> > scraping vegetation out (if it's getting too hot) or adding more to the 
> > mound (if it's cooling down). If the nest mound gets too cold or too 
> > hot, then the eggs die.
> 
> Tending would require staying in the same locality for an extended period 
> of time and local food resources for a creature the size of a sauropod I'm 
> sure would run out.

Lots of animals fast while tending their nests. Sauropods could have built up 
huge reserves of fat 
prior to nesting.

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist              http://geo_cities.com/dannsdinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia             http://heretichides.soffiles.com
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