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Hey,
wasn't the
evolution of flight according to Sankar Chatterjee supposed to have started
with the gliding patagium between the wrist and shoulder of early
"protodromaeosaurs" while their bodies dangled below, allowing them to
half-glide/half-plummet to the ground like a wind-germinating seed (the umbrella
ones, not the helicopter kind) perhaps to assist in precision landing during
acquisition of prey more than any actual desire to travel distances. I
always pictured the tails evolving secondarily to stabilize and redistribute the
excess, giving the paltry little arms a job similar to the one cannards do on
aircraft. Have there been any bird flight mechanics and evolution
publications post 1997 that dispute this claim? As an abstract thought,
the only way delta-wing aircraft get away with having no cannards is by having
a shorter fuselage so as not to need minor front-end lift. Surely if
the tail evolved before the minimal inner wing membrane there would be a
tendency towards stubby bodies among protodromaeosaurid gliders and a
significant increase in body-lengths once the fore-limbs started taking some of
the work-load so as to stabilize matters. Is there evidence of this
fuselage/body lengthening? Do we have enough early pre-birds to make this
kind of study yet? I hope so.
Any thoughts?
Samuel Barnett
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