Teeth for fish eating, and filtering etc

[(veni, vidi, concreti) <martin@hpentccl.grenoble.hp.com>]

Thanks for the replies to this thread. The problem I have, is that pterodactlys 
with forward facing teeth are assumed to be perfect for catching fish, but so 
are  those with only small pointy teeth. And aren't some also equipped with 
horny beaks _and teeth? Now what are _they all doing? To catch fish you only 
need a beak with a little bit of grip; witness mergansers for example.

Nick wrote:

>They have found fish scales in the belly of a rhamphorhynch- I

Ah, but if you eat jellyfish (say) and jellyfish eat fish (they do) you could
end up eating fish too.

>Now, it's easier if you just rotate the teeth forward- then you
>just impale your prey, and then you close. Just spear the darn things. To
>swallow or carry it in the mouth- just give the head a little toss and
>open enough to let the fish slide back into the rear of the jaws, which
>are lined with smaller, conical teeth that are nicely alingned straight up
>and down.

Hmm but for this to work your teeth need to be pointing in one direction only,
surely? If your teeth are _splayed_, and you have impaled something, it'll be 
the devil to get off, no (well I suppose vigorous shaking would work, but you 
don't know where it's going to end up). However I like the suggestion (sorry, 
can't find who suggested it) that you can pull them off your teeth with your 
front claws.

On a slightly different topic, the so-called Flamingo pterodactly (Oh how I 
wish British Airways had not lost my luggage with my newly-purchased
dino books in it!) seems always to be illustrated standing statically in 
shallow water, filtering the water for crustacea using the _front part of it's 
upcurved bristly snout. This seems incorrect to me, because the bristles 
actually extend virtually the whole length of the snout, with scarcely any 
change in their length. To me this indicates the whole length of the snout was 
intended to be used as a filter, and the only way I can see to do this is by 
laying the snout along the surface of the water and sweeping from side to side 
(perhpas advancing one pace for each sweep) , scooping up whatever floats on 
the surface (duckweedy find of plants, perhaps?). What do you think? Does 
anyone know if the articulations of the neck show any adaptations for sideways
sweeping?

John Bois wrote:

>       How many angels can dance on the end of a needle?


Hmm, I _think it's "dance on the head of a pin" actually.

Betty Cunningham <bettyc@flyinggoat.com>

> If you watch dogs catch frisbees (the world championship kind) they leap
> up and 'stand' on their hind limbs which effectively reduces the mass
> they have to move in a spin to that which is closest to their CG.

Are yyou saying, then that big T was some kind of fisbee cathcer? I guess this 
would lead straight back into the argument that flight developed when 
ground-based therapods found it useful to leap up and catch frisbees......%^)


martin