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Re: Cope's Rule in the Pterosauria - Hone & Benton 2007
Quoting Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>:
Michael Habib wrote:
True. Furthermore, I am personally a bit perplexed how pervasive
the "competitive exclusion by other flying vertebrates" concept is.
Yes. I tend to think that the ecological niches of birds and
pterosaurs did overlap in the Cretaceous, and maybe even earlier.
There may even have been some stiff competition between the two,
though it may not have been a general rule. Insect-eating micro-bats
and caprimulgiforms (frogmouths &c) co-exist in today's world.
Not to mention two (outwardly) very similar-looking insect-eating
groups, the swifts and swallows.
--
Nick Pharris
Department of Linguistics
University of Michigan
"Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity."
--Edwin H. Land