Re: Subject: Bird hibernation/torpor

[Jeff Poling <jpoling@dinosauria.com>]

At 11:21 AM 3/28/97 -0500, John Bois wrote:
>Tom Holtz and Betty Cunningham both note that dry conditions did
>support dinosaurs in the Gobi.  I attack this argument on two
>fronts: first, that they became extinct because they had nowhere
>to hide, i.e., there was no grass;

   When I took Dr. Thom Hetherington's class at OSU, he mentioned that the
continent on which dinosaurs evolved (Pagaea?  Gondwana?  I can never
remember what the supercontinent is called) may have been basically one vast
desert/steppe/savannah away from the coastlines.  One theory is, then, that
dinosaur/archosaur bipedality was an adaption for a desert-like lifestyle.
In otherwords, dinosaurs may have evolved in a desert or near-desert
environment (along with, I might add, mammals).

   Is this theory still viable, or has it been shot down?

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