Re: vaulting pterosaur launch, questions

[dinoboygraphics@aol.com]

> > > And that's exactly what we see in pterosaurs and in birds. Not in 
bats so far, though. Should I take this as evidence that flight started 
ground-up in pterosaurs and birds but trees-down in bats, so that the 
bats evolved control during their hypothetical gliding phase before 
they started flapping? :-) <<<

At least primtive pterosaurs appear to be more specialized for 
arborreal life than derived pterosaurs (the opposite of birds).  That 
raises the issue of how complex the stages that pterosaurs went through 
prior to flight may have been.  Now if we could just get some more 
fossils!


Scott Hartman
Science Director
Wyoming Dinosaur Center
110 Carter Ranch Rd.
Thermopolis, WY 82443
(800) 455-3466 ext. 230
Cell: (307) 921-8333

www.skeletaldrawing.com


-----Original Message-----
From: David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>
To: DML <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 3:47 pm
Subject: Re: vaulting pterosaur launch, questions


----- Original Message -----Â
From: "jrc" <jrccea@bellsouth.net>Â
Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 9:55 PMÂ
Â
> > However, as with the Wright brothers, you can't very well have 
powered >>flight until you can have controlled flight.Â
> Â
> Actually, you can, but it leads to a lot of kersplats. What it would 
more > likely lead to, is very stable flight modes in the earlier forms 
of flying > vertebrates. Long tails, etc.Â
Â
And that's exactly what we see in pterosaurs and in birds. Not in bats 
so far, though. Should I take this as evidence that flight started 
ground-up in pterosaurs and birds but trees-down in bats, so that the 
bats evolved control during their hypothetical gliding phase before 
they started flapping? :-)Â
Â
> Personally, I think flight origins were probably neither trees downÂ
> nor ground up, but rather a mixture of makingÂ
> use of all energy sources available.Â
Â
This requires, of course, that the animals in question were fairly good 
at climbing. For theropods that's not so clear. *Archaeopteryx* in 
particular has very terrestrial feet. Â