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New Zealand's First Land Mammal Discovered
Bob Beale writes to clue us to big news from New Zealand. The country has long been thought to have been devoid of land mammals until recent times. No mammal fossils had ever been found there; but now one has. From the article: "Small but remarkable fossils found in New Zealand will prompt a major rewrite of prehistory textbooks, showing for the first time that the so-called 'land of birds' was once home to mammals as well. The tiny fossilized bones — part of a jaw and hip — belonged to a unique, mouse-sized land animal unlike any other mammal known... The fact that even one land mammal had lived there, at least 16 million years ago, has put paid to the theory that New Zealand's rich bird fauna had evolved there because they had no competition from land mammals."
Only a small change required to the theory:
New Zealand's rich bird fauna had evolved there because they had little competition from land mammals.
I don't really see how... one small mouse, even if there was 1 million of them, wouldn't really have made much difference to birds; it'd only be preditors that made a big difference
They would make a difference... as food
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I'd suggest a minor change to the theory instead of chucking the whole thing.
www.jmagar.com
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I particularly enjoy how *one* mammal fossil would somehow constitute "competetion" for all the birds there.
Laborare Est Orare
Another huge difference mammal competition can make to bird evolution is the fact that there have always been a lot of wily egg-eating mammals.
Well, a few pigs killed off the dodo by eating its eggs. Millions of small rodents could put a significant dent in an ecosystem if they took a liking to bird eggs. And that's only a direct example. They could conceivably out-compete certain birds for seeds. They could be a perfect breeding ground for parasites. They could be lunch for the birds. Their rotting carcases could increase the fly populations, thus indirectly providing more food to the birds. There's dozens of ways that millions of mice could alter an ecosystem.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Umm, New Zealand is about 1000 miles from Australia last time I checked.
Hardly a short flight for anything but an albatross.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
"So now we need to explain..."
That's why I love reading evolution "research" papers. They explain and explain, and then something happens to show it doesn't work, so they come up with a completely different explanation, etc. etc. I mean, come on, how hand wavy can you get and still call it valid science?
And no, I'm not anti-evolution (and no, not creationist, I'm just open to criticizing my own thoughts). I just enjoy how overly-serious people treat evolution theories, based on basically no evidence. Now we found a mouse! Ok, new theory! Bow to me!
Even very small mammals may eat the eggs of very large birds. In fact they often do.
The real issue here is that every species fills a niche. A mammal filling a niche means there will be no bird filling that niche. Nonetheless, it's kind of a dumb comment (not yours--I mean the original one you're referring to); one mammal species 16 mya will have less impact on bird evolution than many mammal species existing throughout time. 16 my is a lot of time for evolutionary changes to take place.
Oh dear, when will the rest of the world learn that NZ Sheep jokes are neither original, funny, nor based on any implied "cultural" activity!!!!. In the words of the Lonely Planet Blue List Guide of 2005 - "dont mention sheep jokes, they have heard them all before".