Galapagos Friendliness (was RE: Third claw for climbing was Re Pro(to)avis)

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> >From: David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>
> >Reply-To: david.marjanovic@gmx.at
>
> >>  maybe the small prey wasn't used to that sort of a predator...
> >
> >Either it would have become very soon... or it would have become extinct,
> >so that the predator would have had to change its methods.
>
> maybe the prey managed to survive as a viable population, without losing its
> not-used-to-the-small-predator nature.
>
> just a thought.
>
> (how long had people been able to visit the Galapagos - as an example - and
> how long have the island animals there (still as example) retained their
> "tamenes" ?)
>
Human presence on the Galapagos has been sporadic over the last several hundred 
years. Because there is so very little freshwater
there, it is difficult (except for a few spots) for people to stay there year 
round. Mainland animals (pigs, dogs, cats, and
especially goats) are far more of a selective force on the natives.

Darwin himself mentions that some of the birds had already become warier of 
humans in his time there (1830s) than earlier reported.
And that trend continues: whereas Darwin was able to walk up to a Galapagos 
hawk and knock it with this rifle, they are fairly
skittish today...

P.S. Tyrannosaur Symposium was a blast! More on it later.

P.P.S. Many of us went to the symposium very secure that "Nanotyrannus" was a 
juvenile T. rex. While this hypothesis most definitely
remains in play, Witmer presented some pretty unexpected (but again, not 
conclusive) results. More at SVP...

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
        Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
        Mailing Address:
                Building 237, Room 1117
                College Park, MD  20742

http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
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