RE: Life of Birds (vertical running)

["Ken Kinman" <kinman@hotmail.com>]

     In an animal that already had evolved feathers for other reasons 
(predator evasion, brooding and other thermoregulatory functions, etc.), I 
can see how aerodynamically-assisted semi-vertically running up hills and/or 
trees could be advantageous enough to lead gradually to powered flight.  It 
would not require a reversed hallux to be effective as a predator evasion 
strategy.  Perching could have come later.
    So predator evasion could have been both the driving force for the 
initial development of feathers (even before brooding), as well as the later 
driving force toward powered flight.  I obviously believe that evolving 
strategies to evade predators is certainly a excellent way ensure that one 
will survive and reproduce.
    And in the early Mesozoic, I think it could have been more important 
than either display, brooding, or internal thermoregulation.  Like many arms 
races that occurred in the Precambrian and Paleozoic, feather development 
and evolution was probably heavily influenced by predators and the evolving 
ability of prey to avoid increasingly sophisticated predators.  So 
hypotheses of vertical running (depending on the details) would probably 
suit me just fine.   Anybody know in what journal Dial will be publishing 
his paper?
               -----Ken Kinman

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