Re: Neogondwana and Epitheria (fwd)

[NJPharris@aol.com]

In a message dated Fri, 25 Jan 2002  6:39:44 AM Eastern Standard Time, Jerzy 
Dyczkowski <jerzyd@poczta.ibb.waw.pl> writes:

> Here common reply to previous posts:
> 
> "there is no fossil records of aardwarks, elephant shrews, golden moles
> and ternecs from outside Africa"
> 
> Common ancestor of these groups evolved from basal Afrotheria after the
> original Afrotheria split, so no reason why it should still remain on the
> same continent. 

Exactly my point; there is no reason why they should all stay in Africa--and 
yet, to the best of our knowledge, they did.  Anyway, I was wrong about 
aardvarks, as Eric Lurio pointed out.


> Third, ternecs live on Madagascar.

OK.  Change "Africa" to "Africa and surrounding islands".


> "many flying birds are reluctant to fly over open water"
> 
> Which shows that there is only one birder on this list.  Many landbirds
> are indeed relucant to fly over open water at day. 

But that was the point of the initial comment.  While many birds are "willing" 
to travel great distances over water, there are also many species that simply 
do not do so, and the reasons why not are unclear.

--Nick P.