RE: Walking with Dinos

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> dbensen
>
>  I said that bit about modeling pterosaurs after birds under false
> pretenses.  I was under the (apparently mistaken) assumption that birds
> and pterosaurs flew in a similar manner.  Since they didn't, it wouldn't
> work to digitize bird flight.  However, the pterosaurs in Walking With
> Dinosaurs didn't seem to be manipulating the air at all, so my point
> that the desingers should have paid more attention to their flight is
> still valid.
>

Actually, Dave Unwin (who knows MUCH more about pterosaur flight than you or
I) was one of the main consultants for the show.  I think part of the
problem you are having is that you have only seen a few clips so far: as
Americans, we haven't seen the full show yet.  The European Late Jurassic
episode has a LOT of pterosaurs in it, and you get to see some variety
there.

Perhaps you've mostly been seeing the gliding pterosaur scenes (I've seen
the full Late K U.S. episode, and the only pterosaur in it
(_Quetzalcoatlus_) does mostly gliding, other than a power takeoff).

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796