Re: Origin of flight in birds and bats

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

Jaime Headden <qi_leong@hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> As an addendum to the second,
> http://blogs.nature.com/news/2011/11/new_theory_on_bat_flight_has_e.html
> 
> "...proto-bats, when dropping down from the ceilings of caves, could
> use flapping to control their descent and land in the right place to
> gobble up prey."

Wouldn't that suggest that frugivorous megabats, with good eyesight and no 
echolocation, evolved 
from insectivorous cave-dwelling microbats with (presumably) small eyes and 
echolocatory 
abilities? Surely that would require a lot of reversals in the megabats - 
unless flapping flight 
evolved twice in bats.

-- 
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Dann Pigdon
Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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