Re: bats

["James R. Cunningham" <jrccea@bellsouth.net>]

David Marjanovic wrote:
> > Moreover,
> > again without fossil evidence to strengthen my
> > paradigm, I suspect that not all pterosaurs died at
> > the end of the Cretaceous,

Because of the commonalities in their flight dynamics, you can be pretty
sure they did.

> > But the pterosaurs disappeared
> > as well. Why?
> 
> "Why not?" is IMHO a more useful question, considering the apparent severity 
> of the mass extinction.

Pterosaurs don't carry a lot of body fat.  All it would take to whack
them would be a few weeks of weather unsuitable for soaring and/or
motor-gliding.


> > One other thought: Gregory Paul has observed that
> > pterosaurs and bats share similarities,but with one
> > fundamental difference (as examinations of skulls
> > demonstrate): bats are bigger-brained. Coupled with
> > being faster, and able to

Ummh, how much faster were bats than the big azhdarchids with their high
wing loadings?