Re: del Hoyo's avian volumes

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Williams, Tim" <TiJaWi@agron.iastate.edu>
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2002 4:58 PM

> For example, DA features the
> semi-flightless New Zealand kakapo as an analog for incipient aerial
> behavior in the ancestors of birds.

Semi-flightless? Everywhere I've seen it says the kakapo is totally
flightless?
Considering that the kakapo has lost (or is reducing???) flight, instead of
increasing its use, why would that be an analog for _incipient_ aerial
behavior? (Probably a rather dumb question, as I won't be able to read DA
before July.)

> But when we try and paint a
> detailed picture of dinosaur behavior, the connection to scientific fact
> becomes increasingly tenuous with the addition of every detail.  Until
> finally we arrive at _Jurassic Park_.

Come on. Not JP, but WWD :-)
(BTW, WWD has been used in a paleontology lecture over here. Of course the
professor disliked all that speculation on behavior.)