Re: Caudipteryx and "Whulks"

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

Dennis Hwang wrote:

<Presumably, the filter-feeding pterosaurs
(_Ctenochasma_, _Pterodaustro_) didn't need this tight
seal, since they weren't aquatic?>

  Unneccessessary, given it's probable feeding action:
while the great plankton-feeding animals of the deep
(mantas, great sharks, and mysticetean whales) are
pulling in water, with mammals occasionally shutting
the jaws and using their tongues to squeeze out the
water, when the animal is above water, it doesn't need
a seal to close the water from it's throat. Instead,
the water is filtered out as soon as the jaws leave
the surface, as in flamingoes (which also use their
tongues to scrape and squish), and probably as in
*Pterodaustro*.

  My refs for this are in various zoological and
biological texts usually found in most libararies,
notably _Grzimek's_. Sorry, Larry, on upsetting you,
I'll get those refs out as I should have done. I wrote
the Rex vs. Giggy [like that better than Gigi] post in
haste.

===
Jaime A. Headden

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

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