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Re: flying Archie



Dann Pigdon wrote:

Why would any Jurassic flyer resemble a creature that has another 140
million years of natural selection under it's belt?

That's an interesting question, because the _Archaeopteryx_-style mode of flight (whatever it was) may have persisted for a considerable time beyond the Jurassic. _Archaeopteryx_-style fliers may have coexisted with birds that flew in essentially the same way as modern birds well into the Cretaceous. Both short-tailed and long-tailed birds are represented in the Jehol biota, after all. Perhaps the 'old' and 'new' fliers coexisted right up to the end of the Cretaceous, depending upon how close _Rahonavis_ was to _Archaeopteryx_ in its aerial locomotor abilities.


There could have been advantages to _Archaeopteryx_-style flight compared to modern avian flight. It might have been energetically 'cheaper', especially if aerial locomotion was only needed over short distances. I don't know how similar Late Jurassic Bavaria was to Late Cretaceous Madagascar, but _Rahonavis_ (if indeed it was very similar to _Archaeopteryx_) might be a relict that survived so late due to exceptional local circumstances.

That's like asking: "If australopithecines made tools, then what sort of MP3 players did they use?"

Probably an Empeg Car.

;-)

Cheers

Tim