Yearly SD dig, Pachy skulls, & tree nesting

[roger@arkansas.net (Roger A. Stphenson)]

Greetings all,

In a few days I'm off to dig in the Hell Creek Formation very near where
Sue was found. We, our team, has done some sweet work over the past two
summers, but we've only begun to scratch the surface of a vast deposit.
While our finds are cool we have the classic problems in dealing with bones
that have not been replaced by minerals, they're extremely fragile
sometimes. In the sandy deposits the bones are often hollow, or very
spongey, and in the mudstones they are often brittle. Anyone have any "Hell
Creek hints" they're willing to share?

Recently someone posted a message that Pachycephalosaur w. is known from
only one skull and a few fragments. The skull I found last summer was much
more than a fragment, and can be seen at Dino Russ's Lair. You people don't
know how badly I want to find some of that (highly technical term)
"postcranial" material from one of these beasts. Of course I know how
unlikely that is. The questions I have posted concerning these critters
seemed to have fallen out of the loop, but we can talk about comic books in
detail. AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!


During the memorial day weekend holiday I happen to witness a initially sad
thing. A quick and windy thunderstorm dislodged a baby bird from the top of
a hickory tree, and it flopped on the ground that seemed very violently to
me. I dashed out of the truck and rescued it before the wall of rain
arrived. After the storm passed I located the nest and parents, 50 feet up.
My Mcgyver(sp) mind formulated a simple solution to getting the nesting
back near its parents. I took an empty 12 ounce beer can attached some
fishing line to the top, put a few drainage holes in the very bottom, cut a
smallish hole in the side, being careful to dull the edges, and palced the
bird inside after packing it with strips of paper towels. I then threw a
rock over the limb with the nest, with the fishing line tied to it (not on
the first try!). It was then a simple matter to draw the can, bird n all,
almost back up to the nest. The mother scarlet tanager(sp) was quick to
begin feeding the returned baby, but the male was put off by the can. I'm
not absolutely sure the baby survived, but last time I was at the site the
nest was empty, and so was the can.

My question(s) to you all;
If such falls happen in species well designed for tree nesting, is there
even a remote chance that smallish-supposedly-able-to-climb-trees dinosaurs
nested in trees? It seems that during that awkward stage, of any young
animal, such falls would surely be fatal without intervention such as I
provided. Still, a large brood would allow for such losses, but Mr. Bois's
placement of nesting site  importance should be considered. Since there are
so many tree nesting dinosaurs alive today, ie birds, can we assume that
this aspect of their survival statagey was developed very early in the
evolutionary processes? If the pre-powered-flying dinosaurs began nesting
in trees, would tree nesting and the protection provided be a prime force
in directing the evolutionary path? If so what mechanisms would these early
dinosaurs use to offset the inheirent danger of falling nestlings? Even if
the fall is survived, which may be easier than I imagined, the squalling
traumatized baby alerts every predator within earshot.

Isn't it amazing that a vicious "hunter" such as myself could display such
concern over a baby bird?


Roger "soon to be diggin' dinosaurs again" Stephenson