Re: Why did only avians survive?

[Tim Donovan <uwrk2@yahoo.com>]

--- David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at> wrote:

> 
> No. Current paradigma holds that we simply don't
> know because there are
> _far_ too few fossils. _Extremely_ few

 Poor choice of words.


> Enantiornithes from the Maastrichtian
> are known... very few birds are known from that time
> in general!
> 
> There exists an idea 

  Funny English. :)


>for why Neornithes survived
> while all the rest did not.
> It points out the different lifestyles of all those
> clades. The Neornithes
> of the time were generalists and/or depended on
> freshwater ecosystems;

  Didn't Stidham and Hope mention numerous neornithine
shorebirds?



> generalists fare generally better during mass
> extinctions (pardon the pun),
> and freshwater ecosystems were the least damaged of
> all because their food
> webs often don't start with living plants.

  But what about heat and ejecta?  IIRC at least one
study concluded they can't even survive acid rain.
 


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