Re: Precocial Dinosaurs [long]

[slaz@electriciti.com (Steven S. Lazarus)]

On 5/13/96 John Bois wrote:

>  As you can imagine, I was delighted to hear of the [Geist and
> Jones] study because its results agree with an important prediction
> of the nonstealthy-nest theory of dinosaur extinction ...

I've never heard of the nonstealthy-nest theory of Dinosaur extinction
other than here. Are there people other than John Bois who subscribe
to this "theory"?

>extinction of non-avian dinosaurs.  The non-stealthy nest idea is
>a reasonable biological hypothesis.

It just doesn't seem reasonable as mechanism for extinction for the
dinosaurs which reproduced by egg laying for over a hundred million
years.  If egg predation became a real threat don't you think it would
have been adapted for? I mean, they did thrive for eons and eons and
eons!

>    Finally, my arguments have been based on biological causes
>for extinction.  I have not seen any other biological arguments
>put forward--disease has been (rightly) rejected, temperature of
>eggs causing too many of one sex has been (rightly) rejected.
>Crop species overturn (gymnosperm -> angiosperm) has merit but
>does not, by itself, explain the selectivity of the extinction
>pattern (but see _Precocial Dinosaurs_ post!) Ditto climate
>change.  What else?

Egg predation is probably one of many sub-plots, but I don't think
it's the main storyline. The Dinosaurs are only one facet of the K/T
extinction, this idea can't explain the whole K/T event.

S.S. Lazarus