Lots of things

[Stang1996@aol.com]

ornstn@hookup.net
<<First of all, my understanding is that the presence of hair (or 
something like hair) in Pterosaurs is not a "fact" but an interpretation 
of the specimen(s) of Sordes that is not universally shared. It may be 
likely but not proven.>>

You've got an alternate theory, I'm listening.  There is VERY good 
evidence that _Sordes_ had hair.  There is the possibility that what 
that is isn't hair, but if that is true, it is not analogous to Anything 
ever encountered in all of zoology.  What the inpressions show is 
hair, not postmortem contraction of skin, not artifacts in the 
sediment, but hair.  Look on page 104 of _The Illustrated 
Encyclopaedia of Pterosaurs_ and there is a close-up picture of 
_Sores_' hair.  On pages 163-4, Wellnhofer talks more in detail about 
the subject, and also brings into play, some Solnhofen specimens 
that show folicles.  The evidence is pretty much 99% sure that 
Pterosaurs were hairy.

<<be convergent if the two groups developed heterothermy 
separately,>>

Don't you mean homeothermy?

groo@netcom.com
<<Can anyone recommend or un-recommend _Dinosaurs Past and 
Present_?  which has turned up in the local used bookshop for $20 (2 
volumes).>>

$20.00!!!  Get it now.  This is a super book set, if for the illustrations 
alone.  I should have got mine at a used bookstore; but then again, 
you never know when someone is going to unload a colection.

tlcomp@iu.net
<<I think they would have ran. Even modern birds will run rather than 
fly. If you watch them they only fly as a last resort. Why? Because 
running takes less energy than flying. So I think the "ancient" birds 
and pterasaurs (especially small ones) would have run.>>

I guess your right.  I'm thinking of all the crows and robins that fly 
away from oncoming cars without a second thought.  If you chase 
ducks and sparrows on the ground, they'll normally run away.  I 
guess it would depend on how much they wanted to get out of the 
situation.

Peter Buchholz
Stang1996@aol.com