Re: On the subject of mysterious absences...The Answer

[jrc <jrccea@bellsouth.net>]

Unlike flamingos, Pterodaustro seems to have filter fed by swinging the 
lower mandible aftward through the water, creating a pair of 
counter-rotating eddies around the mandible that swirled water and 
particulates into position inside the filter -- and then swinging the lower 
mandible back forward, to expell the water through the filter while trapping 
the particulates.  No gullet mechanism involved, whether they had one or 
not.
JimC

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Danvarner@aol.com>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Cc: <danchure@easilink.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2008 7:23 PM
Subject: Re: On the subject of mysterious absences...The Answer


> In a message dated 4/19/2008 8:00:38 PM Eastern  Daylight Time,
> danchure@easilink.com writes:
>
> << Briefly: if you  want to filter feed without gills, you need to take in 
> a
> large amount of water  and then somehow stop it going down your gullet 
> before
> you spit it out past  filtering surfaces such as baleen . Only mammals can 
> do
> this,