Re: Quizz: Groundup, treesdown and Evolution.

[Betty Cunningham <bettyc@flyinggoat.com>]

Pterosaurs-1 finger in wing membrane as airfoil control
Apparently flew fine.  Were succesful predators.

Bats-4 fingers in wing membrane as air foil controls
fly fine-can fly with holes in wing or parts of fingers missing
entirely.
Succesful predators

birds-NO fingers in wing acting as air foil controls
fly fine-damn fine predators
this function is accomplished by exterior body pelage.
Without the feathers they can't fly worth a damn.
Ergo to fly a bird must have feathers.  Bet a dollar it had to work the
same on earlier fingered forms.

If your creature had feathers to START with-BEFORE flight-say to be
pretty for the babes hanging out at the lagoon...
if your creature had a genetic penchant for losing fingers-say in a
Mononykus fashion for Mononykus reasons or a T rex fashion for T rex
reasons....
And it tended to hop around with it's arms out a lot.....

I wanna know when the first rotary flap developed.
Yes, Deinonychus could hold his arms out   La dee da
Why the hell would he wave both of them around rotating them at the
shoulder in a circle?
The repeated cycle of motion in the wing/shoulder girdle has very little
in common with a grab-and-hold maneuver.
Only thing this biped does that even remotely echoes the motion is
holding out the arms for balance.

Maybe we're going about this wrong.
Maybe the wing developed as a balancing aid BECAUSE the tail was being
reduced or was somehow no longer as efficient at balancing the rest of
the bipedal animal.

-Betty Cunningham

luisrey wrote:
> 
> Following the MOST POPULAR Thread Ever some basic questions:
> 
> If Deinonychus'-like 'wing' was enhanced and developed by predatorial
> strokes, what would be the 'evolutionary logic' of a ground predator's hand
> losing fingers?
> Wouldn't it be more efficient a down stroke with five clawed fingers
> instead of three?
> What was that that made dinosaurs start losing fingers in the first place?