Re: Nocturnal crocs?

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> relaxation on mammal size constraints toward the very end
> of the Cretaceous, brought them over the dinosaur nest/juvenile predation
> threshold.

*Gobiconodon* (cat-sized) is EK. *Kollikodon* (the _1-m-long_ platypus with
apparently a beak and 4 molars per dentary, probably harmless to eggs) is
also EK. *Stagodon* is supposed to have been much like the Tasmanian Devil
rather than an important nest predator...
What should have caused such a relaxation on mammal size constraints, and
where do you find such a relaxation?
        Just curious -- are you trying to explain the extinction of
dinosaurs by mammals eating their eggs? :-o

> Small jackals today
> cannot approach ostrich nests in the day time but have no trouble at
> night.

Really? I thought the male sits on the nest at night?

> Paul Willis seemed to feel that no Cenozoic crocs possessed
> sclerotic rings (a structure linked by Mickey and others to the diurnal
> habit).

All ichthyosaurs had sclerotic rings; many dived to depths where diurnal and
nocturnal are useless terms.

> "It may be significant that
> the only (crocodilians) that survived the Cretaceous were nocturnal."

AFAIK most crocs survived the K-T... I don't know when the notosuchians died
out; in NA only specialised turtle-eaters like *Brachychampsa* bit the dust
IIRC.

Is anything on champsosaur nesting behavior known?