Re: questions for Witton & Naish: Azhdarchid Pterosaur Functional Morphology

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

Combined answer:

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Peters" <davidpeters@att.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 4:09 PM

> Is there a third alternative? Charlie Chaplin, Cosesaurus [one of the 
> track-makers of Rotodactylus] and living lizards capable of bipedal 
> locomotion on treadmills indicate that a tetrapod can have sprawling 
> femora and produce a narrow-gauge trackway (more on this later).

Lizards can only do that when they run, right?

> For that matter, what genera are most closely related to azhdarchids?

What makes you think any single genus we know, as opposed to a larger clade, 
is their closest relative? What prevents the sister-group of the azhdarchids 
from having diversified?

> The key words "related" "phylogeny" and "ancestor" are not found in the 
> text.

"Ancestor" _should_ not be found in there for very good reasons that I and 
others must have explained to you about 15 times now.

> Perhaps some clues as to functional morphology could have come from 
> ancestral forms.

We ain't got no ancestral forms. We can only _reconstruct_ them.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Witton" <Mark.Witton@port.ac.uk>
Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 5:57 PM

> "Tupuxuarids with long fifth toes? That's at odds with a big paradigm and 
> the statement was not referenced."
>
> Yup: Tupuxuarids have long-ish big toes. They're nothing like those of 
> basal pterosaurs, but as pterodactyloids go, they ain't small. There's no 
> reference, however, because it hasn't been published yet (guess we 
> should've put a 'pers. obs.'). I'm not going to say too much because Alex 
> Kellner has a paper on Tupuxuara on the cards, so we'll have to wait for 
> the full assement from him.

But _fifth_ toes? That is... somewhat... surprising.