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

[Mark Witton <Mark.Witton@port.ac.uk>]

Just realised these messages only went to Mike and Jim. Whoops.

--

"Mark: are you using "broad chord" to indicate a broad wing overall (ie.
average chord) or a broad inboard wing only?"

My wing reconstructions (based on the dark-wing Rhamphorhynchus) do tend
to have a narrow-ish outwing, but, hey: enough words. Look for yourself
at: 

http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchObject.action?uri=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%

What you see there (Fig. 5 of our paper) is the planform from which wing
area was derived. There isn't a straight line to the ankle, but it
doesn't exactly hug the tibia, either.

"I am curious, though, to know which newspaper/websites have picked up
the story.  I've seen several already, do you have a list?  I'd be
curious to compare (in part to see how different popular sources portray
pterosaur research)."

I have considered doing a list, but there's still new reports of it
coming out so I'll wait for it all to die down. It made the pages of
several national papers over here (even the biggest selling tabloid in
the country, which surprised us no end - how does a story about the
feeding habits of a couple of pterosaurs end up in a newspaper normally
only worried about topless women and sport?), _loads_ of news/science
news sites, and a healthy section of the blogsphere picked it up, too.
Oh, and we did several national and international radio interviews. Ever
tried descibing an azhdarchid in words alone to people who've never seen
one? "Erm... it's like a giraffe with a stork's head, but the head is 2
m long, and the neck is really stiff and can't move much, and they have
10 m wingspans made primarily out of two fingers. And they wandered
around murdering baby dinosaurs. Oh, and they were reptiles but covered
in hair instead of scales and lived millions of years ago and could
fly". Yeah, sure: _that_ sounds like a real animal. 


--

Mark Witton

Palaeobiology Research Group
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Portsmouth
Burnaby Building
Burnaby Road
Portsmouth
PO1 3QL

Tel: (44)2392 842418
E-mail: Mark.Witton@port.ac.uk