Re: Yet more on dinosaur quad climbers

[Mike Habib <biologyinmotion@gmail.com>]

On Jul 12, 2013, at 3:38 AM, Ruben Safir <ruben@mrbrklyn.com> wrote:

> Large feathers on the arms would have an aerodynamic effect.  

True, but this does not mean that those effects were the primary function or 
that the limbs were used for a sustained flight function (or, indeed, a lift 
dominated function at all - though it is likely they were)


> If they evolved for other purposes, it would cause the use of the arms to be
> useless, which would be an astonishing development.  For Microraptor it
> would disable arms and legs.

How does having long feathers render a limb useless?  It certainly doesn't for 
living birds. In fact, if you argue that Microraptor flew, for example, then it 
must at least be a decent leaper.  That implies plenty of hindlimb function.

Cheers,

--Mike