Re: "Yale settles debate: Birds are dinosaurs"

["Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

MariusRomanus@aol.com wrote:


> There really is no hard evidence that says without a shadow of a doubt that 
> the flight style mechanism of the avian hand evolved for prey grasping,... 
> yet more often than not, it is treated as such. Logic points toward 
> arboreal activity as being just as likely a possibility, and some see it as 
> being even more so.

I agree.  The predatory stroke --> flight stroke hypothesis is by no means 
set in stone.  Nevertheless, I think an arboreal origin for the begining of 
the flight stroke is entirely compatible with a theropod ancestry for birds 
(as supported by cladistic analysis).



Tim

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