Re: Paedomorphosis ( Re: BARYONYX' CLAWS )

[Dinogeorge <Dinogeorge@aol.com>]

In a message dated 98-04-13 21:41:08 EDT, m_troutman@hotmail.com writes:

<<  First, its MATT ( why does everyone call me Michael? ). Second, I 
 agree with all of your above points. Flapping is seen in aquatic 
 animals. Aerial flight is best called "flight". >>

I've been treating "flight" as a generic term for all kinds of locomotion
through the air. If we restrict "flight" just to the kind of flying that
birds, bats, and pterosaurs (apparently) do/did, then we still need a generic
term for locomotion through the air. Constructs such as "aerial locomotion"
and so forth are too stilted. Besides, we generally speak of the "flight" of a
thrown or batted baseball or other object, or of an aircraft or spacecraft,
and these have nothing to do with the kind of flying that birds do.

The dictionary is not terribly helpful with "flight": the "act, manner, or
power of flying." So we go to "flying," and we see "making flight [helpful,
eh?] or passing through the air." Note the second clause: "passing through the
air." Nothing about flapping wings, etc. Farther along in the definition:
"floating, fluttering, waving, hanging, or moving freely in the air" and
"extending through the air." "Air" is the operative term here, I think, in
addition to the definitely generic nature of the word "flight." (So "aerial
flight" is redundant.) I submit I've been using "flight" properly, at least
according to the dictionary I own (Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged).

I've now begun to use "ornithopting" specifically for the kind of flying that
birds, bats, and pterosaurs do/did, for want of a more concise term. One may
even use this term for penguins: they ornithopt through water rather than air.