Re: Mammalian hairs in Early Cretaceous amber

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

On Fri, 21 May 2010, Tor Bertin wrote:
> > From: Richard W. Travsky <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>
> > Subject: Re: Mammalian hairs in Early Cretaceous amber
> > To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> > Date: Friday, May 21, 2010, 8:32 AM
>
> > > Two mammalian hairs have been found in association
> > with an empty puparium in a ¡­100-million- year-old amber
> > (Early Cretaceous) from
> >
> > This is very interesting. Not that there's a plethora of
> > samples to look
> > at, I'm sorta wondering why good hair finds have not
> > previously been found.
>
> Honestly, I'd bet that it's a matter of both sample size and overall 
> accessibility. In most ecosystems, not only do insects tend to be more 
> common on a population basis, they're also more likely to reach the 
> portions of the a tree that may hold sap to preserve them in the first 
> place (due to their morphology, ecological niche, etc.).
>
> In other words, Mesozoic mammals may have been rarer than insects, but 
> it's probable that at least partially arboreal mammals were even rarer.

I was leaning more towards something like preferred habitat... Dunno