RE: met Novacek- oviraptor questions(mostly)

["Cunningham, Betty" <Cunningham@sega.com>]

Achut Reddy writes (quoting me):

>>question #1-if this was a desert, what molluscs were present?
>
>Perhaps they ate snails or used the palatal plates to crush
>the bones of small mammals.

but there's no (or little) wear!
How can you crush anything like a shell or a bone with something just as   
soft or softer (bone is shofter than most shell) and not have it also   
scratch and thus wear down?  In all specimens?
Teeth have enamel to cover them which is so hard it preserves longer than   
any other part of the animal, yet these aren't teeth but BONE, and thus   
can't do the work of teeth without wearing more than teeth would, but   
there's no wear........Do you see why I wanted to know what they were   
for?
Is it possible they were covered by a beak-like material though they were   
in the roof of the mouth-something that could act to preserve them like   
enamel?

 -Betty