Let's fix those pterosaur eggshells! (was: ... pterosaur hands!)

[David Peters <davidrpeters@charter.net>]

Hey, that's fine. Keeps me in business.

In the tradition of science, all I wanted to do was reason through the  
details.

Along similar lines, I finally got to see Unwin and Deeming 2008  
"Pterosaur eggshell structure and its implications for pterosaur  
reproductive biology." All throughout the paper U&D reported on the  
extreme thinness of the eggshell, its porosity and concluded several  
times that it was most like that of non gekko squamates -- but they  
couldn't pull the trigger and say that maybe pterosaurs were  
squamates, as I suggested to Dr. Unwin in Sept. 2007. Instead they  
opted to hypothetically bury the eggs in moist litter or soil. Nothing  
was said, of course about each being a single egg (lotta work for one  
egg), that one was buried in volcanic ash and two others in lacustrine  
sediments (presumably having been transported there, but buried eggs  
don't roll or float away in floods, do they?)

Ah, well. Maybe tomorrow.

David Peters
St. Louis


On Sep 29, 2009, at 7:47 AM, jrc wrote:

> I'm with Chris on this one.  Decided he was right several year ago,  
> after detailed discussions with him.  See no reason to change my mind.
> JimC
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Peters" <davidrpeters@charter.net 
> >
> To: "dinosaur mailing list" <dinosaur@usc.edu>; "Chris Bennett" <cbennett@fhsu.edu 
> >
> Sent: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 4:34 AM
> Subject: Let's fix those pterosaur hands!