Re: Alvarezsaur spurs (was Re: dino-lice)

[Augusto Haro <augustoharo@gmail.com>]

2011/4/30 Tim Williams <tijawi@gmail.com>:
> Augusto Haro <augustoharo@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> True, the aardwolf is truly strange. It is truly cursorial being
>> mostly a myrmecophage, so the questioning of myrmecophagous habits
>> because of being cursorial seems to lose a limb.
>
> Not entirely.  The aardwolf is fairly inactive in the African winter,
> and spends most of the time huddled inside its subterranean burrow.
> Harvester termites (its preferred food source) remain holed up in
> their mounds during the winter; and although the aardwolf can feed on
> other items, the winter period is nutritionally (and hence
> energetically) stressful for the animal - hence the reduced activity
> levels.
>

I never heard of the term cursorial not being applied to animals
because they are not active during winter. I would certainly label it
as cursorial because of its limbs proportions, very similar to those
of other hyenids and canids.