Re: Burrowing/hibernating mammals have lower extinction risk

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

Quoting GUY LEAHY <xrciseguy@q.com>:

> I wonder if this could have been a factor at the K/Pg boundary?
>  
> http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/595756

There don't seem to have been many Mesozoic mammals that *didn't* fit into the 
sleep-or-hide 
category.  Unless that's a function of preservation (dying in a collapsed 
burrow buries your corpse 
quickly, with little chance of scavenger disturbance).

Certainly it doesn't seem to have applied to birds. I have a hard time 
envisaging burrow-dwelling 
ratites, and even if most post-K/Pg volant birds were like sheer-waters or 
puffins, those species 
only tend to nest in burrows for part of the year rather than live in them 
full-time.

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