Re: Pterosaurs in trees? NOT!

[Swift Claw <MissRaptor@mindless.com>]

Tracy Ford wrote:
> 
> 
> So they didn?t nest in trees, couldn?t fly out of or into trees...
> Well, they never went into trees.
> 
> They started flying by running and flapping, no gliding. They use the
> majority of the same flight muscles as birds, but in a different way.
> Birds became much more capable fliers, so they?ve ended up ruling the
> air.
> 
> Tracy
> 
> 

Oh?  And what good would that have done them?  I believe, that when we
talk about an animals ancestors, we are talking about their ANCESTORS,
not THEM.  Just because THEY might have long wings and be unsuited for
life in the trees, doesn't mean the creatures that they evolved from
weren't.  Just try to imagine how a creature "running and flapping"
would evolve.  I don't see how that would hold any advantages.
And they were also perfectly for powered flight, almost matching, if not
matching those "much more capable fliers," birds.  Just because they are
extinct, and birds alive today doesn't mean anything.  I am sure that no
one on this list would say that dinosaurs (meaning pre-avian) were less
effeciant than todays mammals because they are extinct.