Re: Arms into wings

[tsg94001@uconnvm.uconn.edu]

>
>Brooding. As Mark Orsen and I presented at Dinofest 98, the entire progression
>from featherless flightless reptiles to feathered, flying birds, makes good
>sense if the first reason for long feathers on the arms was to cover eggs and
>babies. Then, your "not-quite-flying" condition equals a "well-adapted for
>brooding a larger number or size of offspring" scenario. Aerodynamic feathers
>come from the need for streamlining. No fossil evidence is paradoxical in this
>progression -- i.e. caudipteryx makes sense, too.

Makes perfect sense.  Except for the bit about the transition from brooding
to flight.  Long arms: check.  Long feathers: check.  Now, what was the
proto-bird doing with its arms immediately before its descendents began
flapping them.


Tim Williams