Re: Adaptive advantage (was Re: ABSRD BAND on Sinornithosaurus feathers)

[Ronald Orenstein <ornstn@home.com>]

At 11:33 PM 15/03/01 -0600, Tim Williams wrote:
> To answer this question another way: birds.  Birds often sit in trees 
> watching for prey below - then swoop.  The early bird may catch the worm 
> not by stomping around the ground, but by keeping an eye out from the 
> vantage point of a comfy tree branch.

Not really a good model for dinosaurs.  First of all, all of these are 
birds that can fly, and their technique is to stay in one spot, fly down to 
sieze an item, then fly back up to the same perch (that's why they are 
called "sit-and-wait" predators).  The birds that do this are normally 
fairly short-legged.  The closest arboreal equivalents to an arboreal 
theropod (non-avian), I expect, would be long-legged birds thta get about 
by leaping from branch to branch or running along large limbs (eg birds of 
paradise, guans etc.)


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Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886
International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116
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