Re: T. bataar eggs...again

[Crpntr@ix.netcom.com (Kenneth Carpenter)]

Philip Biglow wrote:

>  If one individual layed only two eggs at a time, or if she layed 50 
eggs
>at once (ala sea turtles, et. al),


the fact that both eggs occur side by side MAY indicate that both 
oviduct were used to lay the eggs at the same time.  This is different 
than birds that have only one functional oviduct.


>In modern
>ecosystems, animals that lay large numbers of eggs usually have large
>numbers of die-offs of their offspring (snakes, fish, sea turtles).

Actually, it is predation, not die offs that affect many of the young of 
animals you refer to.


>  Regarding the shell thickness:  2mm thick shells on a 16 inch long 
egg are
>not very sturdy.  I wonder how well such shell thicknesses would stand 
up to
>body incubation weight??


True, which is why I cannot accept suggestions of bird-like incubations 
of eggs.

>Lastly:
>  It is probably more financially rewarding for the original collectors 
to
>count smaller numbers of eggs as "specimens" than it is financially
>rewarding for them to count the whole lot as one specimen.  I hope I am
>wrong about this.  My fear is that the eggs were not collected with 
science
>in mind. 
> 


True again.  Some of the eggs that have hit the market are composites, 
or have had shell glued onto the rock where the eggshell had fallen off. 
 However, I have been permitted to examine some that are clearly whole 
eggs and these do indeed occur in pairs and are 40+cm long.  At least 
one group I examined contain two sets of paired eggs suggesting that the 
mother did not just lay one pair.  Unfortunately, there is no field data 
that I have seen to determine how many pairs of eggs occur in a linear 
row.  Only this would tell us how many eggs the female laid.  


Kenneth Carpenter