RE: Continental predators, etc.

["Tracy L. Ford" <dino.hunter@home.com>]

*
* Crocs lay lots of small eggs at a time. Oviraptorids and *Troodon* at
least
laid 2 relatively big eggs at a time, one per ovary. Living birds have lost
the right ovary and therefore lay only one even bigger egg at a time,
exceptions are AFAIK the kiwi and at least one atavistic chicken: those lay
2 eggs at once.
My thoughts on this are that if producing fewer eggs at once really is a
weight reduction necessary for flying then this must have been present
_before_ flight.<<

* I'd say the reason for have one or two eggs at a time means a high
survival rate. If there is a low survival rate for a species, then you need
lots of eggs to make sure the species survives. Its not the size of the egg,
but the size of the clutch that really matters.

For dinosaurs there was a low survival rate so you need lots of eggs to
perpetuate the species.

*
Tracy L. Ford
P. O. Box 1171
Poway Ca  92074