Re: The Biggest Dinosaurs

[zenlizard@juno.com (Sam j hogan)]

On Thu, 21 Aug 1997 15:01:03 -0400 (EDT) John Bois writes:
>  And, among extant snakes, among which you could assume some control of
all >other variables, size depends on, I should say correlates with and
dependence is an >inference which is highly likely, almost certainly, I
say correlates strongly with nest >guarding vs. viviparity.
Not entirely.  There is strong evidence that viviparity  (or actually,
oviviparity) in snakes is more strongly connected with arboreality.  This
includes many snkaes not normally thought of as arboreal; an increasing
body of evidence indicates that many snakes spend at least part of their
time in trees.  This  *MAY*  also have something to do with the relative
sizes of species.  See refs listed.

References:
Lillywhite, HB and Henderson, RW;  "Behaviorial and Functional Ecology of
Arboreal Snakes", pp 1-48 in  "Snakes:  Ecology and Behavior  (RA Seigel
and JT Collins, eds), 1993, McGraw-Hill, New York
Plummer, MV  "Habitat Utilization, Diet and Movements of a Temperate
Arboreal Snake  (_Opheodrys aestivus_)" pp 425-432, Journal of
Herpetology 15, 1981

-zenlizard

"Sweet and Innocent"  doesn't scream;   "Sweet and Innocent"  squeaks.