Re: Question: Why did birds lose their teeth?

[Dr Ronald Orenstein <ron.orenstein@rogers.com>]

In which case, why did turtles lose their teeth?

Ronald Orenstein 
1825 Shady Creek Court
Mississauga, ON
Canada L5L 3W2
ronorenstein.blogspot.com

> On Mar 11, 2014, at 7:53 AM, Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Tue, Mar 11th, 2014 at 9:41 AM, don ohmes <d_ohmes@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> I do not claim this is testable (I have thought of one possible way, I will 
>> mention it later),
>> but a plausible selective path to tooth loss in birds is clear. 
>> 
>> Think about this next time you are flossing -- small bipeds that cannot use 
>> their hands to clear
>> stuck/snagged material from their mouths have a problem -- if they are 
>> volant, the problem is
>> exacerbated. 
>> 
>> Fully optimizing wings (in birds) for flight logically and apparently 
>> demands losing the claws --
>> and a toothy bird is just that more likely to die from something a little 
>> too big to swallow, not
>> to mention catching something too large in the first place! 
>> 
>> Perhaps there is a clear pattern in the data of 'first go the claws, then 
>> the teeth'?
> 
> How often to extant non-volant reptiles try to clear their mouths with their 
> limbs?. I imagine it'd be 
> impossible for crocodilians, not to mention potentially limb-shredding for 
> monitor lizards. 
> 
> Many non-volant toothed theropods also had long necks and short forelimbs, 
> making any sort of 
> grooming of the mouth via the forelimbs unlikely (tyrannosaurs and 
> carnotaurus are obvious 
> examples).
> 
> -- 
> _____________________________________________________________
> 
> Dann Pigdon
> Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
> Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
> _____________________________________________________________
>