RE: Microraptor also ate fish

[Anthony Docimo <keenir@hotmail.com>]

> Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2013 21:57:31 -0700

> Tim Williams wrote-
> 
> > > I never said Microraptor couldn't or didn't hunt, just that no food item 
> > > in its stomach could ever
> > > support this over scavenging in any particular case. Thus no ingested 
> > > food item could support
> > > a particular behavior for Microraptor, be it climbing or catching fish.
> >
> > An ingested food item can corroborate an ecomorphogical hypothesis.
> > _Microraptor_ has been interpreted as a climbing animal. When an
> > arboreal bird turned up in its abdominal cavity, this discovery was
> > consistent with that interpretation. The discovery of fish remains is
> > consistent with _Microraptor_ hunting aquatic prey as well. I think
> > this interpretation is more parsimonious than scavenging, based on the
> > behavior of many modern predatory mammals and birds.
> 
> Consistency does not equal corroboration when there is an alternative the 
> evidence is equally consistent with.
> 
> You would have to demonstrate hunting is more parsimonious in both cases, and 
> that hunting arboreal birds in trees is more parsimonious than doing so on 
> the ground in the first case.  My cats have caught their share of arboreal 
> birds (mostly juncos, robins and starlings) in my life, and every time I've 
> seen it, the bird's been on the ground.

 I've been to my share of aquariums which house mudskippers, and every time i 
looked in, the fish were out of the water.

If you aren't willing to entertain the possibility that _Microraptor_ can pluck 
fish from the surface of a body of water (or a puddle), then perhaps you would 
be willing to entertain the possibility that _Microraptor_ is getting its fish 
from the trees it glides to & fro from?