Re: Dietary factors & giant land mammals

[John Bois <jbois@umd5.umd.edu>]

On Mon, 7 May 2001, Ronald Orenstein wrote:

> >Ironic, then, that the largest extant birds live in, and depend upon,
> >grasslands.
> 
> This is, of course, a recent artifact - if moas and elephant-birds had 
> lasted only a few more centuries your statement would not be true.

Correct.  I didn't mean to suggest anything other than irony.  And yet, to
see a bird with the mass of a bison or a wilderbeest would be impressive
enough.  I suppose there are food processing limitations on this.