Re: Theory of Non-Avian Dino Extinction

[Adam Yates <zooamy@zoo.latrobe.edu.au>]

On Sun, 23 Mar 1997, Paul Willis wrote:

> 
> While on things Mesozic Victorian, the scuttle-butt around the traps here
> this week is that Tom Rich has found Australia's third Mesozoic mammal. I
> gather that this one is not from Lightning Ridge and may be from Victoria.
> I'll keep you all posted.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Paul
> 

Yeah he's had the the thing since late last year. It comes from Dinosaur 
Cove and was found in previously collected lumps of bone bearing rock. 
For those who don't know Dinosaur Cove has been exhausted so there is 
little chance of finding any more of the creature. The bone in question 
is a humerus so it cannot be directly compared to Kollikodon or 
Steropodon. The word is that it is another monotreme, which makes Mike 
Archers speculation about Australia being a land of monotremes during the 
Mesozoic even more plausible (like S. J. Gould said "two might be a 
coincidence, three is the begining of a pattern" or words to that effect) 
Still it might be difficult to distinguish between the humerus of a 
monotreme and an advanced non-mammalian cynodont, so I would treat the ID 
as tentative. 

Adam Yates