Re: pterosauria arm folding

[jrhutch@socrates.berkeley.edu (John R. Hutchinson)]

>Padian's running _Dimorphodon_ looks elegant and quite plausible; his
>penguin-waddling _Anhanguera_ looks ridiculous.
>
>Nick P.

I'm sorry, but I must protest this comment. Since Kevin isn't here to
defend himself, I will (as one of his grad students). I think folks on this
list should pay a little more respect to the people who carefully study,
describe, and publish on the taxa in question. These people don't just sit
in their comfy chairs and theorize; they get out and do the grunt work.
Dismissing their interpretations as "ridiculous," IMHO, lacks that simple
respect. I'm not saying that you must agree with them, but at least a
polite nod to their experience is common courtesy.

In any case, plausibility in functional morphology is a shoddy way to do
science. In functional morphology and biomechanics, we try to use more
rigorous methods, especially quantitative ones, that are more replicable
than gestalt interpretations. Exactly what is plausible or implausible?
What estimates of the center of gravity of a pterosaur body have you found
(I wish someone would at least try this)?  How does the known anatomy
(joint morphology, etc.) agree or disagree with the interpretations
presented? It's these sorts of comments that belong on this list.

                        John R. Hutchinson
                 Department of Integrative Biology
                  3060 Valley Life Sciences Bldg.
                University of California - Berkeley
                     Berkeley, CA 94720 - 3140
                      Phone:  (510) 643-2109
                      Fax:    (510) 642-1822
         http://ucmp1.berkeley.edu/people/jrh/homepage.html