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Re: Gastornis bone isotopes indicate herbivorous diet
Even if largely herbivorous, I'm sure it wouldn't have hesitated to use that
beak on any potential
nest robber, or anything attempting to make a meal of the bird itself.
Plenty of modern herbivores are also not averse to eating the occasional bit of
meat (deer killing
and eating birds, cows snacking on rabbits, hippos scavenging from carcasses,
etc). Mineral
deficiencies in particular can cause herbivores to seek out animal prey - and a
large bird that layed
large thick-shelled eggs might just have had a craving for bones (alive or
dead) at certain times of
year to gain that extra bit of calcium.
On Sat, Feb 22nd, 2014 at 3:57 AM, Hammer <hammeris1@att.net> wrote:
>
>
> So I guess WWPB and: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Gastornis ; need a major
> adjustment.
Until
> the next paper that holds the carnivore view.
--
_____________________________________________________________
Dann Pigdon
Spatial Data Analyst Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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