Re: Flight capablities of Archie & Confucius? Not so good...

[Tim Williams <tijawi@yahoo.com>]

Don Ohmes <d_ohmes@yahoo.com> wrote:


> True, but don't discount trees entirely. The cycads I have
> experience with (such as Sago Palms) are VERY easy to climb,
> even w/out any "special tools". It is difficult to imagine
> that animal that size w/ a toothed beak and claws would find
> a cycad unclimbable..


Exactly.  Besides, many cycads (and extinct 'cycadeoids') are/were column-like 
and unbranched.  So adaptations that improved an animal's ability to grasp 
and/or perch would have been pointless.


Thomas <hammann-textbuero@online.de> wrote:

> Maybe a point which was discussed
> earlier: Islands often are "turbo chargers" for evolution (I
> heard of this first when I read the book "The Song of the
> Dodo" by David Quammen many years ago). So are feathers an
> "island invention" (e.g. Archaeopteryx)? 


I've wondered if flight ability evolved to facilitate commuting between islands 
("island-hopping") in the European archipelago.  But since this would have 
required flapping flight, and probably a "ground-up" launch as well, I've since 
gone cold on the idea.


Cheers

Tim