Mammalian success and egg predation,

[Martin Baeker <baeker@x4u2.desy.de>]

Hi everyone,
I'm unlurking for a second to ask the following question on the 
mammal/dinosaur thread:
It all started with the speculation that mammals eradicated the dinosaurs 
by munching all their eggs ( or at least a large enough fraction).
But then, suddenly, we are discussing why mammals did fill the ecological 
niches of dinosaurs.
IMHO, the two facts have not much to do with each other: This is not a 
detective story where we can find the murderer by asking: Who got the 
most out of it? 
I believe, the intended connection is: It were mammals who filled the 
niche because they did not suffer from egg-predation as would other 
creepers like big birds, lizards or what-have-you. BUT live-bearing is by 
far not the only difference between mammals and the rest of the world, so 
this seems to me to be a very weak statement. Any flaw in this line of 
thinking?
Cheers,
Martin.

                   Martin B"aker
                   II. Inst f. Theor. Physik
                   DESY         
                   Luruper Chausse 149
                   22 761 Hamburg
                   Germany
                   Tel.: 00-49-40-8998-2234
                   e-mail <baeker@x4u2.desy.de>