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Re: Flight
From: WILLSCULPT@aol.com
> Bill Barbour ... writes about the origins of flight and
> Archaeopteryx;
>
> Dr Larry Martin, a fossil bird specialist at the
> University of Kansas has reconstructed Archaeopteryx from resin casts of the
> actual fossil bones. He claims that he had little choice in how the bones
> articulate, (or at least in how he articulated them) and says that his
> reconstruction seems adapted for climbing trees, much like a primate. Thus,
> he theorizes, that powered flight evolved from gliding from the tree down
> rather than from running and flapping from the ground up.
In this I tend to agree with Dr. Martin. I do not think that
a ground-level origin of flight is plausible. (The *best* such
scenario I have ever seen is the one suggesting that the proto-
bird used its "wings" as nets to catch insects - and that one
is none too convincing).
All known mammalian flyers and gliders are arboreal to one
degree or another, or at least show signs of arboreal ancestry.
swf@elsegundoca.ncr.com sarima@netcom.com
The peace of God be with you.