When I was a kid, the idea was that large dinosaurs were spending a lot of time in water (where the cleaning job could've conceivably been done by the fish). Then the consensus have changed towards land dwelling, but nobody explained who and how cleaned these animals.
My first reaction (after I've finished laughing and clapping my hands) was to doubt that the dinosaurs carried as much skin parasites as mammals. You have yourself described how our furry soft skin is inferior to the reptiles' skin, and the birds are usually shown picking from crocodile teeth rather than their skin. But Google says there are worms on crocodiles and ticks on snakes.
This image of Uintatherium is a particularly unflattering artist's impression - it seems that it was just kind of a rhino - basically a cow. I have no trouble extending my anthropomorphic fantasy to such animals. Most mammals are like some deformed humans, with changes in color and size, but a similar "functioning". I think the whole horror of Kafka's Metamorphosis was in selecting the insect for the role - would Gregor have transformed into a dog, say, or a lemur, the effect would have been comical. I think this is not due to a "genetic memory" but to our ability to "understand" mammals (or think we do) because we recognize our own features in them.
The scales are no hindrance; the reptiles have all kinds of ectoparasites: mites, ticks, maggots, bot flies, etc. (And you are right about the crocodiles, they do have nematodes). Galapagos finches clean Galapagos turtles from their leeches and mockingbirds clean large iguanas from ticks, etc.
There is even a theory that blood-sucking insects have finished the dinos through spreading infections. It is quite a book. There was an explosion of such parasites in the Cretcious. The idea is that the big size of the dinos and the supposed absence of the cleaners resulted in chronic infestations that gradually undermined the large ones.
This Uintatherium, isn't he a cutie?
It looks alien enough to me...
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This image of Uintatherium is a particularly unflattering artist's impression - it seems that it was just kind of a rhino - basically a cow. I have no trouble extending my anthropomorphic fantasy to such animals. Most mammals are like some deformed humans, with changes in color and size, but a similar "functioning". I think the whole horror of Kafka's Metamorphosis was in selecting the insect for the role - would Gregor have transformed into a dog, say, or a lemur, the effect would have been comical. I think this is not due to a "genetic memory" but to our ability to "understand" mammals (or think we do) because we recognize our own features in them.
Reply
There is even a theory that blood-sucking insects have finished the dinos through spreading infections. It is quite a book. There was an explosion of such parasites in the Cretcious. The idea is that the big size of the dinos and the supposed absence of the cleaners resulted in chronic infestations that gradually undermined the large ones.
Reply
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