Re: fliers and diggers

[NJPharris@aol.com]

In a message dated 97-06-26 16:50:25 EDT, longrich@phoenix.Princeton.EDU
(Nick Longrich) writes:

> I don't really agree with the comment that there isn't any positive
>  evidence for fliers coming from gliders. 

OK, replace "positive" with "direct".

>  Gliders have wings and can fly
>  (by fly I mean generate lift sufficient to compensate for their tendency
>  to fall, if not necessary thrust sufficiet to compensate for drag). 

But this is circumstantial evidence.  What I meant was that nowhere, neither
in the fossil record nor extant today, do we have direct evidence of an
animal readily identifiable as transitional between a glider and a flier--FOR
ANY OF THE (AT LEAST) THREE DEVELOPMENTS OF TRUE FLIGHT AMONG VERTEBRATES.

>  There aren't any cusorial animals for which this claim can be made.

True.  The problem with all of this is that we have no direct evidence of
fliers evolving from animals using any mode of transportation!

Back to the fence...

NP