sordes pilosus

["Thomas de Wilde" <jedimr_thomas@hotmail.com>]

  I've always had a question about Sordes and now that I see its name to
remind me I'll ask it.
I've seen some pictures of Sordes on which its wings are attached to its
forelimbs and its hindlimbs. But there are pictures on which it has the
"classical" pterosaur wing (only attached to the arms). I think it's quite
odd that only Sordes has the wing between both it's limbs. So could anyone
say what picture is correct.
thanks

Thomas



----- Original Message -----
From: "Jaime Headden" <ja_headden@qilong.8m.com>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Cc: <davidrpeters@earthlink.net>
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2003 8:43 AM
Subject: Re: The Peters Strikes Back (pterosaurs)


> Dave Peters (davidrpeters@earthlink.net) wrote:
>
> <Then someone in Karlsruhe gets the steak dinner. Get us together! I'm
metaphorically holding my breath, but previous such examples
> have not proven valid. I am _not_ being sarcastic when I say: I would
genuinely like to see a deep wing membrane. And a pteroid
> sticking out anteriorly insitu. And a plantigrade dimorphodontid track.
And a pterosaur egg. (Wouldn't we all!) Evidence is what
> it's all about. >
>
>   Hmm. Though I am aware that Dave does not regard this as evidence,
*Sordes pilosus* shows just such an integumentary attachment.
> Dave has attempted to reason through a hypothetical and irregular
de-deformation of the holotype that the "uropatagium" was part of
> the trailing edge of the wing, in his reply to Unwin and Bakhurina, 1998.
So far, this is extraordinary itegumental preservation
> where dessication and detachment of a whole piece of skin remained with
the corpse, but the process of detachment did not "loose"
> the material. This is why, even when the elements were associated in a
form of "life-pose," and _rigor mortis_ corrected for, the
> same skin flap should not move the same distance as proposed by Dave and
be part of a narrow-chord wing. Similarly, it is unlikely
> this skin is not part of the uropatagium, and the other side of the wing
seeks to indicate that the ankle or shin was involved in
> the cheiropatagium, contra his evidence for, within the dark mass of
preserved carbonized integument, a secondary, "narrow-chord"
> trailing edge. The evidence is not secure, I think, to argue that *Sordes*
did not have a narrow-chord wing without taking unknowns
> into account, such as the spread-wing shape of the patagia. Maybe that
steak dinner should go to Sharov's shade....
>
>   Cheers,
>
>   Jaime A. Headden
>
>   Little steps are often the hardest to take. We are too used to making
leaps in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so
> hard to do.  We should all learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world
around us rather than zoom by it.
>
>   "Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)
>
>
>