[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]
Re: Of course nonavian dinosaurs could fly - duh
"So now we have an apparently arboreal,
sickle-clawed deinonychosaur with airfoils from earlier than Archaeopteryx,
with the implication that latter nonvolant deinonychosaurs were secondarily
flightless?"
Wait, airfoils = powered flight? Implication is not confirmation . . .
Also, what of the possibility that this form represents an
experimental branch of an otherwise generally/originally terrestrial
radiation, and one that did not in fact lead to secondarily
terrestrial lineages? We don't know that yet, AFAICT. But I'm no
expert.
There are a lot of possibilities still to be nailed down, although
certainly there's no doubt that the picture is far more complicated
than was typically assumed in the 80's.