RE: feathered ornithopods?

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

Tracy Ford wrote:

> The climate of New Zealand at
> that time seems to have been temperate, judging from the dinosaurian and
> plant fossils. [snip] The recovered
> dinosaur material shows no special adaptations to cold climates...

The dino material from New Zealand is so scanty and fragmentary that it 
would be impossible to gauge if their owners were adapted to cold climates 
or not.  There's no evidence pro or con from that direction.

The only 'special adaptations' in the anatomy that might be correlated with 
prolonged cold or dark are: (1) insulative body covering and (2) larger eyes 
(e.g. _Leallynasaura_ - though I'm open to the opinion that its big orbits 
are a juvenile feature).



Tim

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