Re: Mesozoic birds made insects shrink

[tyazbeck@comcast.net]

Dang, I should have put it like that. I wonder if the tail was a liability...

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Keesey" <keesey@gmail.com>
To: "Dinosaur Mailing List" <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 5, 2012 5:08:18 PM
Subject: Re: Mesozoic birds made insects shrink

On Tue, Jun 5, 2012 at 1:58 PM,  <tyazbeck@comcast.net> wrote:
> I still wonder if the extinction of rhamphorynchoids (yes, I know they're 
> paraphyletic, Dave)

Which means they didn't really go extinct.

A better way to phrase it might be the survival of short-tailed
pterosaurs over long-tailed pterosaurs. (After all, anurognathids had
short tails and appear to have lasted longer than other
non-pterodactyloid clades.) Interesting that this happened in Avialae
as well. (I have no idea if it's the case for bats, though.)

-- 
T. Michael Keesey
http://tmkeesey.net/