Re: Discovery Article On Pterosaurs

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

I admire Chris as much as anyone I know, but it's almost certain they
didn't. 

The big ones don't appear to have had enough horsepower to take off that
way.  However, they did have enough power to take off from any flat spot
without running, in a dead calm, even in today's atmosphere.  It just
takes a different technique, in which the hands are the last part of the
animal's body to leave the ground.

I do agree with his assesment of head crests.
Jim

Richard W Travsky wrote:
> 
> "It is almost certain that large pterodactyloids would have had to run
> bipedally for brief periods to take off," Bennett said,