Fwd: The birds vs. the pterosaurs

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

  This was sent to me personally, and with the author's
permission, I'm sending it to the list [Dave originally intended
this to begin with]:

---------------------------Forwarded-----------------------------

--- clark.edwards@osan.af.mil wrote:
> From: clark.edwards@osan.af.mil
> To: qilongia@yahoo.com
> Subject: RE: FW: The birds vs. the pterosaurs
> Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 02:29:50 -0000
> 
> Yeeks, I haven't been so thoroughly slammed since...since Dr
> Bakker nailed
> me to the wall in San Antonio last year during the filming of
> a Discovery
> Channel segment about Tinker.  I stand corrected.  Please
> regard my earlier
> statements as opinionated conjecture.  As I am only an amateur
> (small a) and
> am not as well educated as a Professional, I should not make
> hasty
> generalizations.  I do appreciate input from Professionals. 
> If I didn't,
> I'd be an idiot for the rest of my life, instead of just
> today.
> 
> However, I am a Physiology Professional, with a little medical
> and a bit of
> research background.  I stand by the following balance of my
> statement (with
> some slight alterations):
> 
> <"...an animal with even rudimentary fur or, [possibly] in
> this case
> feathers, would put a fundamentally severe strain on their
> ability to
> compete with [such] smaller, [perhaps] faster, perhaps much
> more
> maneuverable creature.>
> 
> I personally believe this to be the case when dinosaurs became
> the dominant
> land creature for such a long time. 
> 
> I'd also like to note that, to use a military specific
> example, An F-22
> Raptor can out fly, outrun, and out maneuver a C-17, despite
> the C-17s more
> powerful engines, higher fuel capacity, and much higher lift
> capability.  It
> is understood that such an analogy leaves much to be desired. 
> A better one
> might be between an F-22 and a 1960s era MiG (similar in size,
> with the F-22
> being smaller) and the F-22 also being a more advanced design.
>  An F-22 dies
> easier, but you have to catch it first.
> 
> Granted, aircraft design and vertebrate evolution aren't
> really similar, but
> it's just an analogy, and most analogies are faulted in some
> way.
> 
> Dave Edwards


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Auctions - Buy the things you want at great prices! 
http://auctions.yahoo.com/