Re: extant volant theropods (was re:)

[Ronald Orenstein <ornstn@rogers.com>]

At 10:46 AM 20/12/01 +1100, Dann Pigdon wrote:
> > Note for example that no
> > woodpecker has yet made it to either Australia or Madagascar despite
> > ample empty niche space.
>
> Or at least, they aren't around any more. We don't have flamingos in
> Australia any more either, but we did at one point when the interior was
> wetter (fresh water dolphins too).

Yes, but I would be surprised if woodpeckers ever occurred in 
Australia.  In fact the entire order Piciformes is absent from all but a 
few of the westernmost islands of the Australasian region, despite a high 
diversity of woodpeckers and barbets in the Oriental region.

Further, a number of Australian birds have adapted to more or less 
woodpecker-like niches (or at least have developed parallel methods of bark 
foraging), including parrots, some birds of paradise, the climacterid 
treecreepers, Ifrita kowaldi of New Guinea and the extinct Huia of New 
Zealand.  I would not have expected this had woodpeckers formed a recent 
part of the Australasian avifauna.  The same is true for Madagascar, which 
has woodpecker-like vangids.

In connection with this it may be interesting to note that Madagascar and 
Australasia are the only regions with mammalian woodpecker equivalents - 
the aye-aye and the striped possum, both of which have attenuated digits 
they use for bark-foraging.


--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886
International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116
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Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 3W2          mailto:ornstn@rogers.com