Re: A Little Brain Teaser

[pwillis@ozemail.com.au (Paul Willis)]

>Okay, here's a fun question for all of you to ponder: Name one carnivore
>(extant/extinct) that can be confidently said to be derived from an
>herbivorous ancestor. Omnivores don't count - this must be a bona fide
>carnivore (I'm not sure if insectivores count). Some graduate students here
>at Cal were talking about it yesterday and largely were stumped. All I
>could think up was that possibly carnivorous mid-Tertiary kangaroo
>(featured in Paleoworld once). I guess there's also that one
>desert-dwelling mouse that hunts voraciously (the one that howls). Any
>dinosaur examples that anyone can think of (I'm asking for good examples
>here, not wishy-washy possibilities)?
>
>                        John R. Hutchinson
>                  Evolving Evolutionary Biologist
>                 Department of Integrative Biology
>                University of California - Berkeley
>                        Berkeley, CA 94720
>                          (510) 643-2109
>
>        "Thus, the student of adaptation has to sail a perilous course
>between a pseudoexplanatory reductionist atomism and stultifying
>nonexplanatory holism."         --E. Mayr, "How to carry out the
>adaptationist program?"

Thylacoleo carnifex

Cheers, Paul

pwillis@ozemail.com.au