Re: Inquiring Minds

[NEIL CLARK <NCLARK@museum.gla.ac.uk>]

Vikki wrote:-
> I'm not an expert, but my immediate doubt about cold-climate 
dinosaurs
> has to do with whether there was a significant amount of what we'd 
call
> a cold climate when the dinosaurs lived. 

True.  The global climate does appear to have been warmer 
during the Mesozoic than today, but we still need to explain how 
dinosaurs survived in polar conditions where it probably was 
cold for some parts of the year.

> There seem to have been dinosuars
> that migrated to/from the Arctic, but that's a different question.
 
Yes, but what about the New Zealand dinosaurs.  They lived in polar 
regions that did not have vast continental masses to migrate across.  
New Zealand was an Island from at least about the mid Cretaceous on 
and the dinosaurs that are found there are of late Cretaceous age.  
How did they survive the long nights?  Did they hibernate?  At least 
one of the theropods was quite large by all accounts.  I'm afraid that I 
haven't been able to read the Wiffen and Molnar (1994) paper yet, 
perhaps someone who has will be able to elaborate/correct me on 
this interpretation?

Neil