RE: bauplan convergence

["Edels" <edels@email.msn.com>]

Betty:

        I don't remember if I was the first to suggest it on list, but I 
certainly
promoted a particular version of it.  I suggested that perhaps the area
where the proto-birds lived developed  a somewhat constant breeze (much like
Aruba today), and in the course of courtship dancing and leaping, and the
display of their feathers; some of the dancers and leapers were swept up in
the winds, and were able to display higher and longer - obviously a
favorable trait - sure to impress the ladies. :-)

        Allan Edels

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
Betty Cunningham
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2000 1:27 PM
To: dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: Re: bauplan convergence


I'm not positive but I think ibises do the hoppy flappy wing thing.
Many birds such as grouse and chickens and so on do an out-streatched
wing shuffleing dance thing to attract the babes.  Cranes do that
holding back the head and spreading the wings thing as a courtship
ritual too.

Wings are a major portion of MANY bird mating displays.  It seems
likel;y that's what proto-feathered owings were for before flight.  And
the hoppy flappy thing seems most likley to introduce launch situations
to such animals.

I'd forgotten who suggested this onlist, but I didn't originate the
idea.  It just makes a hell of a lot of sense to me.

-Betty

Martin Human wrote:
>
> From: Betty Cunningham wrote
>
> 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...
>
> >I have visions of those (I think) Capercailles(?) which leap up from the
> ground and flash their wings in display....is that what you have in mind?
>
> cheers, m

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