Re: A new "Revolution" installment.

["James R. Cunningham" <jrccea@bellsouth.net>]

Luis Rey wrote:
> 
> Concerning Microraptor, I doubt very much  that an animal that is endowed with
> such a feather fan around the legs was not  able to use them as 'parachutes',
> so I thing it could moderately 'sprawl' its legs (not as much as widening the
> arms though and I don't think they could batter them just as if they were
> arms). So the flight would be effectively like that of a 'biplane'.

Not quite.  Biplanes use the configuration to reduce induced drag.  The
moderately sprawled configuration would not proportionately reduce the
induced drag, so would be problematic re that as a driving force.  And
how did the leg feathers transfer their bending moments to the skeletal
spar?

That said, I do agree -- its fun to argue :-)

JimC