=================================== -------- Original-Nachricht -------- Betreff: Re: 11th specimen of Archaeopteryx Datum: Sun, 23 Oct 2011 11:52:15 -0500 Von: Clair Ossian <clastic@verizon.net> An: <david.marjanovic@gmx.at> Hmmm...I suggest you try to sit in or build a nest in a cycad. I grow a number of species and have seen and handled many other species. Cycads commonly have inflexible fronds and leaflets that are generally sharp, jagged, and very easily inflict bloody wounds on mammals (me) when the plants are handled. I have been savagely ripped up on a number of occasions when moving or repotting one :) I suspect that cycads did not make favored nest sites. Clair Russell Ossian, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, Geology [...] On 10/23/11 10:55 AM, "David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at> wrote:
> It is worth mentioning that cycads and plants with similar > morphology can be easily utilized as perches, roosts, havens and > restaurants by animals whose lifestyle could be characterized > functionally by the term 'turkey w/ teeth' -- I am not saying that > Arch. definitely was a 'toothed turkey' in it's lifestyle, but it > certainly seems plausible. Just to make absolutely sure nobody overextends this analogy -- turkeys have long, reverted first toes, Archie didn't; turkeys roost in ordinary trees (as opposed to cycads), Archie is not likely to have done so, no matter how much time it may have spent in cycads.