Re: Paedomorphosis ( Re: BARYONYX' CLAWS )

["Matthew Troutman" <m_troutman@hotmail.com>]

<<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.>>

     OK. Flying fish are gliders, and if they are gliders then they are 
fliers. Doesn't matter anyway. Flying fish do not use their fins for 
flapping while they are in the air, they just use them for gliding.

<<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.>>

     Flying fish, as I have said above, do not use their fins for 
flapping. Penguins, on the other hand, use them for basically the same 
purpose as flying, with the same motions, muscles, and bones. 

MattTroutman

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