Aw: RE: Arboreal Theropods: The prize at the bottom of the cracker jack box

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

Gesendet: Sonntag, 21. Juli 2013 um 18:45 Uhr
Von: "Jason Brougham" <jaseb@amnh.org>
An: "tijawi@gmail.com" <tijawi@gmail.com>, "dinosaur@usc.edu"@listproc.usc.edu

> To further enrich this productive and interesting discussion, I submit the 
> following.
>
> The smallest extant flightless bird in the world, Inaccessible [Island] Rail 
> (Atlantisia rogersi), masses 34 - 49 grams, and hatches at 7.8 grams. 
> According to Taylor, B. (1998) Rails, Yale University Press, these birds 
> inhabit all vegetation types at all altitudes but are most numerous in 
> coastal tussock grass Spartina and sedges Carex. It also occurs in Phylica 
> thickets.
>
> "All ages of birds climb freely in Phylica and tussock grass to a height of 
> 1.5 m, flapping the wings to aid balance and probably using the well - 
> developed wing-claw."
>
> So, another report of a tiny winged theropod that is a quadrupedal climber.

...on a predator-free, competition-free island, where everything that's not 
anatomically impossible is hardly selected against. So, in case you want to 
extrapolate from this, be careful.

Interesting about the wing claw, though.