Re: megalancosaurus

[Betty Cunningham <bettyc@flyinggoat.com>]

dangn! 
with that neck and forelimb megalcosaurs looks an awfully lot like a
pterosaurid, but that tail looks like it could have come from an
entirely different aniaml, as well as that awfully birdy head.

could this be an arborial, non-volant first-pterosaur descendent?  
Something that existed alongside pterosaurs but wasn't one?  perhaps
similar to an iguana?

How similar is the long tail to rhemphorynchinoids?

-Betty

Nick Longrich wrote:
> 
> a while back somebody posted this link-
> http://home.stlnet.com./~azero/Megalancosaurid.html - it's dave peter's
> illos of the megalancosaurs, you can get an idea of how weird they are and
> pick up some refs.
<snip>
>         There has also been the idea that these things were aquatic,
> neither of them really shows anything that would indicate this except for
> the sheer depth of the tail, however. Various anti-dinosaur camps like to
> interpret these guys as being potential bird relatives. Ruben has
> interpreted Megalancosaurus as a glider but I don't see any osteological
> correlates to gliding present, if one can even find osteological correlates
> to gliding (if there are I'd love to know).
> 
> -N

-- 
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