Re: vaulting pterosaur launch, questions

[ptnorton <ptnorton@suscom-maine.net>]

> > Apart from bringing one back to life somehow, exactly how do we 
> > "properly" establish that Archie flew?  The fossil evidence is entirely 
> > consistent with an animal that was most likely at least a rudimentary 
> > flapping flyer.
>
> Actually, it's a bit mixed in this regard.

Not very.

> > How did it fly? By flapping its wings.
>
> Okay, very funny :)  Seriously, though, there's a lot to this question of 
> importance: it includes launch, power output, flapping kinematic, and 
> landing dynamics.

Seriously though, these questions are equally as valid for all flapping 
flyers, not just Archie.

> > Why did it fly? Who the heck knows! You might as well ask why do we walk? 
> > Or why do fish swim?...
>
> I think Scott meant "why" as in "under what stimulus" - as a mode of 
> travel between elevated points, or as a predator escape, or something else 
> entirely?

The correct question isn't "why" Archie flew, but under what conditions did 
flight became preferentially selected among pre-avian maniraptorans? Archie 
flew because it inherited the apparatus for flight from its ancestors. Why 
those ancestors developed that apparatus is an entirely different question.

PTJN