RE: Leaping launching pterosaurs query

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu>]

Anthony Docimo wrote:
> Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2010 11:51:00 -0500
>> From: davidpeters@att.net
>> To: habib@jhmi.edu; dinosaur@usc.edu
>> Subject: Leaping launching pterosaurs query
>>
>> Hypothetically,
>> was wondering if we amputated the wing fingers, would we get a pterosaur
>> able to flee or attack by bounds using principally the forelimb launch
>> technique?
>
>  that's either a large mouthful of chocolate wing, or one of Gould's
> "hopeful monsters".

Richard Goldschmidt, not Gould. Many people confuse Goldschmidt's concept
of "hopeful monsters" (instantaneous evolution from bizarre offspring)
with punctuated equilibrium (in which the evolutionary change in a lineage
is restricted to punctuation events which are <10% the total species
duration, but are still take thousands or more years).

-- 
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661

Faculty Director, Earth, Life & Time Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/
Faculty Director, Science & Global Change Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc
Fax: 301-314-9843

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Department of Geology
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                        University of Maryland
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