Re: bauplan convergence

[Betty Cunningham <bettyc@flyinggoat.com>]

I still put a vote behind the protofeather sexual display hopping thing
for wing development; which is niether trees up or trees down, really. 
It makes more evolutionary sense to have a pre-flight-capable wing for
making pretty, that later develops flight-worthiness, than a post-flight
flipper developing flight-worthiness does...

How many waterbirds with wing-flippers have lost flight and then been
able to regain it?

-Betty

Stanley Friesen wrote:
> [Indeed, the only alternative to a "trees-down" origin of flight in *birds*
> I find even remotely plausible is the one that suggests protowings
> developed for swimming, as in penguins].


-- 
Flying Goat Graphics
http://www.flyinggoat.com
(Society of Vertebrate Paleontology member)
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