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Fwd: Meter-wide "dinosaur" eggs reportedly found in Chechnya
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- Subject: Fwd: Meter-wide "dinosaur" eggs reportedly found in Chechnya
- From: John Bois <mjohn.bois@gmail.com>
- Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:13:38 -0400
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On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 7:00 AM, Dr Ronald Orenstein
<ron.orenstein@rogers.com> wrote:
> Another point should be reproductive strategy. Even in a large animal egg
> size relates at some level to clutch size. The kiwi, of course, has a clutch
> size of one, but faces (or at least faced before we got to New Zealand with a
> bunch if exotics in tow) no really serious predation risk.
There is a study that compares Australian birds with close relatives
that are geologically-recent immigrants to NZ. This appears to be a
general trend...low predation leads to small clutch size and larger
egg...the luxury (due to low predation pressure) of being able to pour
more parental investment into fewer children.
>As I recall ostrich eggs are actually on the small side as bird eggs go in
>relation to the size of the adult.
Yes...and as a rule of thumb in birds (and probably non-avian
dinosaurs as well), the larger the parent, the smaller the egg in
relation to the parent.