RE: Yet more on pterosaur quad arm posture

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] On Behalf Of 
> David Marjanovic
> Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2013 3:38 PM
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: Re: Yet more on pterosaur quad arm posture
> 
> > they climb up there
> 
> I bet this refers to WAIR. A seriema walking up a tree trunk like a nuthatch 
> is really hard to imagine.

But as I was saying, this referred to the mammalogist's definition. So climbing 
(with claws or with prehensile feet or what have you) is the way to get up in 
the trees.

So again: to mammalogists, arboreal vs. scansorial is more about WHERE the 
animal lives & feeds vs. rests, whereas to ornithologists it is about how they 
get there.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216                        
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661               

Faculty Director, Science & Global Change Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc
Fax: 301-314-9843

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Department of Geology
                        Building 237, Room 1117
                        University of Maryland
                        College Park, MD 20742 USA