Re: Shaking up the bird family tree

[Roberto Takata <rmtakata@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 9:50 PM, Michael Habib <mhabib5@jhmi.edu> wrote:
> In avian wing reduction, by contrast, we tend to see a more complex
> reduction in several continuous characters (forelimb skeletal characters,
> flight feather production, sternal complex robustness, pectoralis mass,
> etc).  Simple up-regulation changes are unlikely to re-induce full flighted
> ability in neoflightless birds.

We could do an allometric studies... But in principle all those
reductions could be controled by a single gene - if it is placed in
the right point of developmental control cascade: say, one that
control the AER tempo.

[]s,

Roberto Takata