Re: Paedomorphosis ( Re: BARYONYX' CLAWS )

[Dinogeorge <Dinogeorge@aol.com>]

In a message dated 98-04-10 23:01:03 EDT, m_troutman@hotmail.com writes:

<< Flying fish do not "fly". They just glide through the air. They do 
 possess physiological advancements over other "fish" ( such as 
 tachyaerobic endothermy ) and they have a high endurance/strength 
 musclature that allows them to to reach high enough speeds that allow 
 them to jump out of the water to glide quite far ( up to 200 m) .  As 
 for flapping flight, they do not have it. Their elongate fins are only 
 for gliding. So this comparison is false. >>

Again we have a terminological problem rather than a real problem. Gliding is
indeed a form of flying as far as I'm concerned. It is distinguished from
powered flapping flight, of course, but this is a matter of definition. A fish
descended from a flying fish that had secondarily lost the gliding ability
would be secondarily flightless in my book.

These fish fly through the air, they don't swim through it. Likewise, penguins
don't fly through the water, they swim through it. Change the medium, and you
must change the word used to describe locomotion through the medium.