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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