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RE: Burrowing/hibernating mammals have lower extinction risk
Tom Holtz wrote:
> > So - any burrowing dinosaurs (excluding birds)?
> "Zephyrosaurs" (a possible clade of hypsilophodont-grade ornithopods
> containing Oryctodromeus, Zephyrosaurus, and Late Cretaceous
> Orodromeus) may be burrowing dinosaurs: pretty secure for Orycto.,
> inferred for the others. Orodromeus is present in the Campanian; not
> yet known if members of this group make it all the way to the boundary.
Bakker has claimed that _Drinker_, a small Late Jurassic ornithopod (or basal
cerapod), was found in burrows. The claim was made long before the discovery
of _Oryctodroemus_. If _Drinker_ was a burrowing dinosaur (and AFAIK was never
actually published by Bakker), burrowing behavior may be primitive for the
entire Cerapoda. So maybe basal marginocephalians were burrowing animals too?
It would perhaps explain those jugal bosses (also seen in heterodontosaurids