From: David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at> Reply-To: david.marjanovic@gmx.at To: DML <> Subject: Re: Third claw for climbing was Re Pro(to)avis Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 22:50:16 +0200
maybe the small prey wasn't used to that sort of a predator...
Either it would have become very soon... or it would have become extinct, so that the predator would have had to change its methods.
just a thought.
did Protoavis live near areas that may've been former islands (that re-connected to the mainland) ?
You're confusing *Protoavis* (all parts of which -- a drepanosaurid, a coelophysid, and who knows what else), which lived in Texas ( = western central Pangaea... unlikely place for an island) with "Proavis" (which is a purely hypothetical concept... well, lots of such concepts).
oh.
sorry.
I prefer separate explanations. Wings for brooding, then exapted for... who knows... WAIR or maybe even swimming or...
what's WAIR ? *curious*
Search the archives. http://dml.cmnh.org "Wing-assisted inclined running"
ah. okay.
thanks.
-- some birds do that to run up steep inclines. They use their wings to stay close to the substrate -- but not to generate lift.