Re: Gliders to Fliers? (Was Re: Ruben Strikes Back)

[Stanley Friesen <sarima@ix.netcom.com>]

At 08:59 AM 9/26/99 -0700, Matthew Bonnan wrote:
>
>Herrerasaurus is 3 meters long.  Dilophosaurus is much larger.  Grasping 
>hands be damned!  How do such large animals clamber through trees?

They *don't*.  They are large, derived forms, even Herrerasaurus.  The
ancestral dinosaur was more like the size of _Marasuchus_.  And given the
bias against small dinosaur fossils in the fossil record, finding it of all
that likely.

> Where 
>are the adaptations in the feet of either of these dinosaurs?  
>Dilophosaurus, and the smaller ceratosaurs Coelophysis and Syntarsus,

And *these* are *waay* derived from the ancestral condition.

_Procompsognathus_ is probably the closest we have to the ancestral
dinosaur ecologically - even if it is technically more derived than
_Herrerasaurus_.

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May the peace of God be with you.         sarima@ix.netcom.com