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no egg-gnawing mammals
John Bois: long text on egg gnawing mammals...............
Rats, mice, ferrets, and other small mammals cannot even gnaw through
eggs the size of a chickens', because they do not have a large enough
gape to get a "bite". They can only hope to break them in their
attempts to cache them.
Now, extrapolate that to cat-size (max) mammals before K/T with eggs
bigger than an ostrich's (and with a thicker shell) and I think you
will concede that the problem still exists..........
Any animal creating burrows under dinosaur nests, in sufficient
numbers to threaten nest viability (ie a veritable rabbit warren),
would risk having a large foot (at least) coming in through the
roof. Particularly in an area habitually and repeatedly (seasonally?)
used for nesting. The energy in digging tunnels is a sufficiently
large investment that animals tend to use the same tunnels for
generations (fox, badger, rabbit, mole, warthogs, rats) ie the tunnels
need to be in a stable, hidden environment. Having 20 + ton dinosaurs
romping all over them doesn't fit, somehow.
Unless, of course, various small headed, long necked dinos specialised
in winkling out small mammals from their tunnels? %^)
martin