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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.