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RE: Gliders to Fliers? (Was RE: Ruben Strikes Back)
Pat Norton wrote (in response to Matt Bonnan):
<<Date: 23 Sep 1999 17:32:21 -0400
From: "Norton, Patrick" <Patrick.Norton@state.me.us>
To: "dinosaur@usc.edu" <dinosaur@usc.edu>,
Matthew Bonnan <mbonnan@hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: Gliders to Fliers? (Was Re: Ruben Strikes Back)
Message-ID: <"03D2737EA9C65014*/c=us/admd=
/prmd=Mainegovt/o=msmail/s=Norton/g=Patrick/"@MHS>
>Pterosaurs would seem to be ideal candidates for a trees-down glider
evolutionary sequence because they apparently incorporated both their
fore and hind limbs in flight.<
I thought Pterosaurs were considered to have evolved from bipedal
cursorial archosaurs. No? >>
>From what I`ve read, Padian believes they evolved flight from the ground up.
See... "A functional analysis of flying and walking in pterosaurs"
Paleobiology, 9 (3), 1983, pp. 218-239..., (unless he has changed his
position since then,...which I doubt). He also points to Lagosuchus as a
possible candidate for a pterosaur ancestor.
I believe that Dr Rupert Wild thinks in terms of a trees down scenario. This
is illustrated in Wellnhofer`s book "Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs"
quite nicely. My guess is that Dave Peters also supports this view with
Cosesaurus as a possible Pterosaur ancestor.