Re: Shaking up the bird family tree

[Mike Habib <habib@jhmi.edu>]

> > Didn't someone recently find that in a group of stick insects?  I'm  
> > afraid I don't have the reference at hand.

I think they may have - I know the paper you're talking about, and  
I'll dig it out.  That said, the thing about flight loss in phasmids  
(and mantids, as well, to an extent) is that the non-flying taxa seem  
to be grounded more by gigantism without wing enlargement, than by  
true wing reduction (to an extent, anyway.  The wings are truly  
reduced in some taxa).  The upshot is that flight loss/gain may be  
unusually plastic in phasmids.  Emphasis on maybe.

Cheers,

--Mike


Michael Habib, M.S.
PhD. Candidate
Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
1830 E. Monument Street
Baltimore, MD 21205
(443) 280-0181
habib@jhmi.edu