Re: [Endotherms and island life (was: follow-up on sauropods)]

[archosaur@usa.net]

> >>> Larry Dunn <majestic_cheese@yahoo.com> 06/05/98 08:50am >>>
> ---Richard W Travsky <rtravsky@uwyo.edu> wrote:
> 
> > A good and pertinent example of this would be the recently discovered
> > extinct population of dwarf mammoths frmo that island off the ALaskan
> > area.
> 
> Isn't this generally true of normally-large terrestrial endotherms
> suddenly finding their populations located on islands?  I believe that
> Cretaceous dinosaurs living on the islands in central Europe were
> dwarfs (or dwarves if you prefer) as well.
> 
> Incidentally, has this ever been proposed as an indication of dinosaur
> endothermy?  After all, biggish ectotherms finding themselves island
> dwellers (see Oras, Tortoises) seem to show the opposite tendency.

> Larry
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Well that's not a very fair assumption. After all
you're comparing small to medium sized reptiles (e.g.
some relatively small tortoises and monitors that only
grew to six feet) to Mammoths and Sauropods. 

Sure it makes sense for a small to medium animal to get
big in the absence of competition. Competition is what
supposedly kept them small in the first place. 

On the other hand if your huge and on an island then maybe
it would make more sense to shrink your size some, so as
not to eat away house and home.

A better analogy would be to see if crocodilians would
dwarf if left on islands. Too bad a croc can't easily get
stranded on an island huh.

Archosaur J

"Cheers....a bar in Boston." 


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