The thread to put your animal observations in.
1. Why did dinosaurs have feathers?
I’ve seen the behavior many times before, but hadn’t made the connection. Birds of many species will immerse some of their body in water in order to carry water back to their chicks in the nest. Even rudimentary tufts of feathers help this process enormously. Rudimentary tufts of feathers aren’t much help in keeping a dinosaur warm, which is the predominant theory in the literature, but are superb for water-holding.
2. Did bipedal dinosaurs swing their arms?
Yes. I’ve noticed in the past that when I walk my pattern of footsteps line up, with the inner edge of a left print lining up with the inner edge of the right print. It bothered me that this didn’t happen with bipedal dinosaurs, where the inner edge of the left print is separated sideways by at least one foot width from that of the right. Was walking yesterday carrying a bulky lightweight object in one hand, which made me aware of how I swing my arms. When I don’t swing my arms the inner edges of the prints line up, but when I vigorously swing my arms the alignment of the left and right prints becomes separated, as seen in bipedal dinosaurs.
3. I just had a chance to watch a silverfish hunting for food. For some reason it didn’t seem to be concerned about my presence. The silverfish is a bit like nature’s vacuum cleaner, and keeps the floor clean by eating anything organic that happens to have ended up there. The front antennae have marvellously flexible joints at their base, and quest right and left using the tips to smell for food. These antennae are often both on the same side of the body. The looping pattern of silverfish travel seemed to be random. There should be a nature documentary about silverfish, as there should be one about the metamorphosis of the ladybug. The behaviour looked so natural that I have to wonder. How did silverfish survive before bathrooms were invented?
