Re: Mesozoic birds made insects shrink

[tyazbeck@comcast.net]

I'll look up the take-off and landing info later. What about the speed of 
flight in pter. compared to birds? I don't doubt that they were warm-blooded, 
but it seems that pterosaurs would be less agile in flight, and very 
voulnerable on the ground. Wouldn't feathers be better (more durable?) than 
skin? Wouldn't a pterosaur with a torn wing be SCREWED, i.e. theropod bait? 
Still, I suspect that the advancement of birds would cause at least a few 
problems for the flying reptiles.

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Sent: Tuesday, June 5, 2012 3:32:31 PM
Subject: Re: Mesozoic birds made insects shrink

> I meant to say that they were not as efficient as birds

But what gives you _that_ idea?

> What about the intelligence of the pterosaurs?

Good question. Very difficult to answer from a few braincase endocasts.

> And weren't pterosaurs bad at taking off/landing?

No. That has been discussed on this list in great detail.

> With their thicker integument, I would venture to say that
> birds were able to survive in colder regions than pterosuars could.

1) Are you sure it's thicker? 2) What colder regions? Pterosaurs did fine even 
in temperate Liaoning.

> And as far as I know, Pterosauria can only belong to one class:
> Reptilia.

Even if you insist on having classes, alternatives are available. You could 
give them their own class (has been done), or you could give something like 
Ornithodira class status (has also been done -- "Endosauropsida")...