Re: UNCINATES, FIGHTING RAPTORS, DEEP TROUBLE...

[DragonFyr@aol.com]

>FIGHTING RAPTORS

>The fighting Protoceratops individual is definitely male, and >according to
Tim Gardom and Angela Milner in 'The Natural >History Museum >Book of
Dinosaurs', "just below the bodies >was a nest of Protoceratops eggs,
>perhaps the V. was
>caught in the act of robbery...". So why are a P. and a V. >fighting near a
nest of P. eggs? Might this suggest that at >least some 'Protoceratops' eggs
are Protoceratops eggs after >all? (Rather than all being oviraptorid).
>Incidenatally, Protoceratops-type eggs have been called >'Elongatoolithus'.

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Just a thought, however misdirected it may be.....but this piece conjures up
a vivid picture of a parasitic relationship.  Why wouldn't the oviraptorid
lay an egg or three of it's own in the nest?  Ready source of food....esp if
the raptor eggs hatched more quickly than the others or slightly more slowly
since the raptor young probably would be fairly self sufficient at birth. And
if the raptors were omniverous the host parents would even bring them food
(bugs and vegetation) much like the relationship between the Cuckoo and its
host parents with the difference that instead of pushing the nestlings out of
the nest to die they would be eaten instead.

Just a stray thought floating about in the universe of my mind  :D