Re: Armadillos at the K/T?

["Tim Williams" <tijawi@hotmail.com>]

John Bois wrote:

> Sometime ago, I said that small hairy armadillos which take a penalty-free
> heavy toll on rhea eggs, were a good model for potential predation on
> dinosaur eggs at or around the K/T boundary.

Two thoughts sprang to mind when I read this:

(1) Do rheas ever kick egg-stealing armadillos in the head?

(2) Whenever I read about "penalty-free predation", I think "Parasites!"
In any example of predation ("penalty-free" or otherwise) - whether it's a 
lion bringing down a young zebra, or a shorebird snatching a fish, or a cat 
pouncing on a mouse, or an armadillo gobbling rhea eggs - I imagine hordes 
of microscopic parasites poised to embark on a journey from one host to the 
next.




Tim

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