Re: Why are blue cones rare in humans?

"deowll" <deowll@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:GtBth.1429$p%6.20@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Any book on mammals. Almost any website
on them. Of course, no human was around at
the time, and the fossil record does not inform
us whether the animal was nocturnal or diurnal.
But since all living mammals are warm-blooded
and since mammals evolved into a world
dominated by cold-blooded (and therefore
diurnal) reptiles, the conclusion that they
evolved into nocturnal niches is inescapable.

True mammals didn't show up until well into the age of the dinos. It is dubious to claim that
dinos were cold-blooded. The consensus is that many of the small meat eaters were warm
blooded.

I don't think anyone doubts that the bulk
of dinosaurs, especially (a) the earlier ones
and (b) the larger ones, right up to the end,
were cold-blooded.

The arguments (or the fashions) seem to
me to swing back and forth, and I have
seen nothing that indicates a consensus.

The arguments against the theory would
seem to be:
(i) A small warm-blooded animal would
have evolved insulation; the only likely
form would seem to be feathers. There's
no evidence for them, AFAIR, outside of
birds.
(ii) Why didn't a few such taxa survive
the extinction?


Paul.


.

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