RE: Bambiraptor complete!

["Williams, Tim" <TiJaWi@agron.iastate.edu>]

Goosezilla wrote:

>I doubt arm feathers would be very hindering to
>locomotion. In fact they may well have sped the
>creature up, providing minor lift and speed burts with
>a flick of the arm. 

The objection raised (not by me) was that big long feathers on the hand and
arm would intefere with *prey capture*, not so much *locomotion* per se.  In
other words, these feathers would have interfered in rapid forelimb
extension (such as in the direction of prey) due to drag or impeded prey
seizure by the manus (an objection which David effectively refuted based on
the relative position of the feathers to flexion of the digits).

>Ground birds, or at least birds
>which hunt on the ground, often use their wings to
>help speedily change direction and sometimes to
>confuse other animals, predator or prey. 

The idea that enlarged forelimb feathers may have helped in maneuverability
or leaping from ground-level (Caple, Balda and Willis, 1983; Peterson, 1985;
Burgers and Chiappe, 1999) or from elevated positions (Chatterjee, 1997;
Garner et al., 1999) is entirely plausible.



Tim