RE: Were dinosaur ecosystems continent-sized? (resend)

["Phillip Bigelow" <bigelowp@juno.com>]

> > My problem with the question ("Were dinosaur ecosystems continent-sized") 
> > is the following:
>
> One clade does not an "ecosystem" make.
>
> An ecosystem is just that: a system, which includes everything within it.

 
 <<<True.  But, and this is how I read it, the original question focused on 
ecosystems which harbored dinosaurs.>>>


I'll wager that nearly all Mesozoic ecosystems harbored dinosaurs (or if they 
didn't harbor them (such as isolated islands), then the term "dinosaur 
ecosystem" wouldn't apply to such places, anyway).

So, I still don't get the point.

A large intra-continental dinosaurian assemblage, say an assemblage of 20-30 
taxa found across a continent, says little about the ecosystem(s) in which they 
lived.  It *could* say something about that ecosystem(s) if large numbers of 
other taxa (everything down to the few remnants of soil bacteria and spores) 
were included in the analysis as well.  Even something as esoteric as finding 
evidence for the pH of the paleosol would contribute to a better understanding 
of the dinosaurs' paleoecosystem.

Knowing everything there is to know about baseball great, Alex Rodriguez, tells 
us absolutely nothing about the baseball team he is on.  And even if we knew 
everything there was to know about his teammates as well, it *still* tells us 
nothing about how they play as a team.

<pb>



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