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Re: Gliders to Fliers? (Was Re: Ruben Strikes Back)



Dinogeorge said:
I for one don't think bipedality
"just happened" in the lineage that later evolved into dinosaurs, because
bipedality is not a particularly safe mode of locomotion. Break a leg, and
where are you, if you're bipedal?

Elephants, which are quadrupeds, usually die very fast when they break one leg because the other three can't support the animal. Seems no safer to be a quadruped and break a leg. What of gazelles that trip and break a leg? We put down horses all the time for breaking legs.


And, how does breaking a leg in the trees make it safer than on the ground? Every locomotor style has its dangers.

No one is saying bipedality "just happened." Archosaurians have more powerful hindlimbs than forelimbs. Perhaps bipedality could evolve under various pressures to run faster by getting the forelimbs out of the way, hence the more reduced forelimbs of the early dinosaurs.

Matt Bonnan

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