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Oviraptor=Parrot?



This may be something that's been discussed to death, but I've searched the mailing list and found nothing that really answers my questions. I just watched the Discovery channel documentary 'Dinosaur Planet' and noticed that once again, the Oviraptor is portrayed as a vicious predator competing with Velociraptor. I don't really understand this view, because to me, Oviraptors have always appeared highly convergent with parrots. Since we don't exactly see parrots competing with eagles for food, why is it they are viewed as predators? To illustrate my point, compare a parrot skull with an Oviraptor skull.

http://dino.lm.com/images/display.php?id=1072

http://www.skullsunlimited.com

Maybe I'm missing something, but they appear very similar in design. Parrots use their beaks for shelling seeds and hard shelled fruits. I think it's likely that Oviraptors used their beaks to crack hard shelled objects before using their curved beaks to "shell" whatever it was they were eating. The question is what were they eating? Is there any fossil evidence of any hard shell nuts, fruits, or seeds from that time period? On the above mentioned show, they brought up the fact that there appear to be too many predators in that area at the same time. My thoughts are that it's not really a problem at all, that Oviraptor, like Therizinosaurus, is another Maniraptorian form that evolved to be a herbivorous animal.

Sim Koning