Re: BAAD BCF

[ornstn@inforamp.net (Ronald Orenstein)]

>But how about the arboreal predators--the ones that can chase you up a tree
>and then follow you around from branch to branch (like felids, e.g.). Here,
>by the way, being lighweight has an advantage: you can sometimes escape to
>branches too small to hold your pursuer.
>

Catch-22, George!  If protobirds became arboreal to escape predators, then
we have to assume that the predators, or at least some of them, could not
follow - otherwise why bother?  But if this  WAS effective, why fly?

As I said, I am not convinced that predator avoidance was a driving force
behind the evolution of flight.

Besides - it's enough to postulate the existence of a whole range of
arboreal protobirds no one has discovered or identified.  Do we now have to
postulate another range of arboreal predators pursuing the first lot, also
neither discovered nor identified?
--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886 (home)
International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116 (home)
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