Re: cursorial flapping -Reply

[ornstn@inforamp.net (Ronald Orenstein)]

>The only part of Greg Paul's (and others) argument that I don't quite
>understand is this:  if powered flight developed in a small arboreal
>theropod as a means of jumping from lower to higher branches, then the
>long limbs, long neck, and wide wingspan seem ill-suited to an
>environment of tree branches.  It's crowded up there, and I can't imagine
>a full-fledged flyer having enough room to develop the flight apparatus in
>such a confining environment with the potential for collisions between a
>flyer and the branches.  It seems much more likely to me that the flight
>apparatus developed in an environment free of spatial limitations with
>room to maneuver, and was an extension of the running, leaping,
>pouncing approach to acquiring prey.
>
>James Norton
>jnorton@mailbox.une.edu

Take a look, sometime, at how long the neck of the average bird actually is.
Also study something like a chachalaca or a hoatzin, birds that strike me
as physically not unlike what Archaeopteryx may have been like.  Their long
necks and legs do not hamper them in trees at all.
--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886 (home)
International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116 (home)
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