RE: Bambiraptor complete!

[Ronald Orenstein <ornstn@rogers.com>]

At 11:47 AM 22/01/02 -0600, Williams, Tim wrote:
> If modern birds are prepared to strike each other using their wings
> (and some species even have metacarpal spurs expressly for this purpose),
> and risk damage to the remiges, then I don't see why predatory
> "dinobirds" would have hesitated at using their forelimbs for prey capture.

I do not think these are really corresponding situations.  Birds that use 
their wing spurs in interspecific combat, are, first of all, using them 
much more rarely than a predator depending on its forearms would do (as 
actual fights are less common than bluffs), and, second, the nature of the 
stroke is quite different.  The risk to the remiges of a bird or protobird 
trying to use a fully feathered wing to subdue a struggling and bleeding 
prey animal still strikes me as high.


--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886
International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116
1825 Shady Creek Court
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 3W2          mailto:ornstn@rogers.com