Re: Caudipteryx and "Whulks"

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Grant Harding wrote:

<About a year ago there was a discussion here about
the possibility of a wading _Caudipteryx_. T. Mike
Keesey suggested that _Caudipteryx_ may have behaved
the same way as a creature in Dixon's _The New
Dinosaurs_ (which "must be based on some real animal")
which used its wings to create shade to which the fish
were attracted. The real animal, as all who saw the
last episode of _The Life of Birds_ know, is the black
heron. Jaime A. Headden said that one slight problem
with the _Caudipteryx_ wading scenario is the
shortness of the neck, and yet to me the neck of the
black heron seemed only as long as that of
_Caudipteryx_.>

  Much longer, in fact; the neck of herons, ibisis,
and storks are generally carried in a relaxed state by
folding against the crop and sternum, so that it loops
downward. The feathers on the neck and breast both
mesh together to make it look a lot shorter than it
is, in fact. Watch footage of one of these herons
(night, or black, or green) standing in the water of
the shore or on a branch, and spear, quick as thought,
a fish. But they do this by spearing with the tips of
their jaws, something *Caudipteryx* cannot do, by
favor of it's more ventrally-oriented premax. teeth.
*Caudipteryx* would have to snatch it up in a way more
reminiscent of birds of prey (strygiforms, cathartid
ciconiiforms, falconiforms -- or, owls, New and Old
World vultures, hawks, eagles, kites, etc.). In fact,
I dry a closer analogy to secretary birds,
*Sagittarius serpentarius,* than to herons, and they,
too, have long legs but not so long necks (at least
compared to ciconiiforms -- ie, storks and their
allies, including New World vultures and teratorns).

<However, the thing that struck me most was the length
of the arms. They look much longer than
_Caudipteryx_'s. But if _C._'s arm *feathers* were
long enough and fanned out the right way, they could
fulfill the same purpose. Are the feathers like this?>

  No, they are long only on the carpal (primary) set,
and taper rapidly. Much of the secondaries are not
preserved, including those attaching to the humerus,
to my eye. The umbrella-technique of the night heron
requires a mobility in the shoulder and elbow not
paralleled by any non-avialan dinosaur, except for
perhaps *Archaeopteryx*, given flight studies made on
the latter. Someone would have to perform a joint
analysis study on *Caudipteryx* (you hear that Norell
et al!! :) ) to see if it could, in fact, rotate it's
arms in such a way.

===
Jaime A. Headden

"May I lure us, ere the mote ends us?"

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