Re: Dodos, Swifts and Quetzalcoatlus.

[Graydon <oak@uniserve.com>]

On Mon, Nov 10, 2003 at 08:37:37AM -0800, James R. Cunningham scripsit:
> For some of the larger pterosaurs, this would appear to be unlikely in
> the extreme.  An animal that can walk around stablely (sp??) in
> quadrupedal posture with its eyes 18 feet in the air doesn't have much
> need to rear up and walk unstablely on its hind legs just so its eyes
> can reach 19.5 feet into the air.  As an aside, giraffes have relative
> neck and leg lengths that are somewhat reminiscent of the big azhdarchid
> pterosaurs, and very few giraffes spend much time in bipedal position,
> or walking bipedally.  Perhaps demonstrating the same lack of need.

That's a nearly vertical posture?

(I don't suppose there are some stick figure drawings available
somewhere?)

Oh, and is 18 feet from a particular specimen, an expected average, or
an upper limit?

Somehow, the idea of something that flies so tall that a tyrannosaur
couldn't look it in the eye is making the sheer size of the things
emotionally real in a way which wasn't previously the case....

-- 
oak@uniserve.com | Uton we hycgan    hwaer we ham agen,
                 | ond thonne gedhencan    he we thider cumen.
                 |   -- The Seafarer, ll. 117-118.