Re: Word from the sole "non-stealthy egg" believer.

[Stan Friesen <swf@ElSegundoCA.NCR.COM>]

From: Ronald Orenstein <ornstn@inforamp.net>
 > Please provide me with one new egg predator
 > appearing close enough to the K-T that beat mechanisms that had kept
 > dinosaurs going in the presence of mammals for well over 100 million
 > years.

Of course he will be unable to, since there aren't any.

I am fairly well familiar with the Lancian faunas of the American
mid-West, and I can say with certainty that no new likely egg predators
appeared in the last third of the Late Maastrichtian.

In fact only a small handful of new placental mammals appeared in that
interval (only two or three or so genera, if my memory serve me right).

Indeed, one of these, _Purgatorius_, being a small, arboreal insectivore,
would be more likely to take the occasional *bird* egg from nests in
the trees than it would be to tackle the *huge* eggs of such dinos as
_Triceratops_ and _Edomontosaurus_.  (Think - could a tree shrew eat
an ostrich egg?? I think not).

swf@elsegundoca.ncr.com         sarima@ix.netcom.com

The peace of God be with you.