Zephir
19th December 2006 - 12:59 AM
QUOTE (bigwheel+Dec 19 2006, 01:47 AM)
...imagine that, another theory down the drain....
The find adds a whole new insight into the evolution of mammals in New Zealand, putting paid to the theory that the country’s diverse prehistoric groundbird fauna evolved there because they had no competition from land mammals.
It's the first time, I heard about such dumb hypothesis. Such presentation of the above finding is just a matter of yellow press in science. Everybody is trying to make its finding more important and cataclysmal, then it really is.
Because of grant support mechanism in science.
ImmortalCoil
19th December 2006 - 01:30 AM
QUOTE (Zephir+Dec 18 2006, 07:59 PM)
The find adds a whole new insight into the evolution of mammals in New Zealand, putting paid to the theory that the country’s diverse prehistoric groundbird fauna evolved there because they had no competition from land mammals. It's the first time, I heard about such dumb hypothesis. Such presentation of the above finding is just a matter of yellow press in science. Everybody is trying to make its finding more important and cataclysmal, then it really is.
Because of grant support mechanism in science.
what's dumb?
The story? or
The find adds a whole new insight into the evolution of mammals in New Zealand, putting paid to the theory that the country’s diverse prehistoric groundbird fauna evolved there because they had no competition from land mammals.
?
Because really, none of it is dumb...
kaneda
19th December 2006 - 07:49 AM
They find one fossil of a mouse which could have drifted from Australia on a tree which fell into the sea.
As to birds, an owl is definitely superior to small rodents, as are hawks, eagles. etc. Even something the size of a cat would avoid certain birds.
N O M
19th December 2006 - 11:00 PM
Good points Kaneda. There are recent (400 yrs) remains of enormous eagles that ate groundn birds (moa - think ostrich on steriods)
Also there are two native mammal species in New Zealand. They are both mouse sized bats, but are ground feeding. Not mentioned in the article.
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