RE: crow story

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> birdbooker@zipcon.net
> HI:
>  Here's the link to the crows using tools story:
>
>  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15503722/
>
>  My question is I wonder if dinos could do this?

Precise answer: we don't know if any Mesozoic dinosaurs could do this.

Realistic inference answer: almost certainly not!!! There is no evidence of 
tool use in Mesozoic dinos. In fact, there is only
limited tool use in most groups of modern birds. And corvids are among the 
smartest living birds with very sophisticated behaviors.

So extrapolating that _Velociraptor_ or _Coelophysis_ or _Plateosaurus_ could 
have used tools, and learned from their relatives,
would be like using the known presence of learned tool use in modern catarrhine 
primates (Old World monkeys and hominoids) and
extrapolating that Paleocene primatomorphs or _Eohippus_ or _Morganucodon_ 
could.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
        Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
        Mailing Address:
                Building 237, Room 1117
                College Park, MD  20742

http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796