RE: Life of Birds (vertical running)

["Tracy L. Ford" <dino.hunter@home.com>]

And yet (and I don't want to say too much about it, so that Dial's paper
isn't comprimised) the taxa that were studied that demonstrated this
behavior are all NON-arboreal birds!!  They are the groups colloquially
called "ground birds" (chukkar's being the main star of the presentation).
Ground birds all tend to feed on the ground, but boy do they ever want to
get up into trees, roofs, rafters, etc. when not feeding!  (I've seen
peacocks getting way up into trees: maybe 10 m or more high, and yet no one
considers peacocks "arboreal")

Neither the foot and leg adaptations nor the forelimb motion used in this
"wing assisted incline running" or whatever they are going to call it are
things which are absent in maniraptorans basally.  Extremely, extremely
cool.

I am going to state publically that I now agree that Greg Paul et al. are
almost certainly correct in the following aspect: the broad feathers and the
forelimb adapations of dromaeosaurids, troodontids, and oviraptorosaurs are
almost certainly associated with an avian style form of locomotion.
However, to qualify that: that locomotion is almost certainly NOT flight,
and I don't think there is any secondary loss involved: I strongly suspect
that young members and small adult individuals of these taxa practiced this
locomotion.<<

Oviraptor and its ilk didn't live around large trees (That I know of), but
they lived in sand dunes and could have used the WAIR "wing assisted incline
running" to go up the dunes. WAIR has many many uses!

If anything, Dial's presentation shows us to drop our old definitions NOW.
They have only crippled our understanding of the origin of flight.  "Ground
up", "trees down", "arboreal hypothesis", and "cursorial hypothesis" are
intellectual baggage that should be left behind.  Instead, let's go out and
watch some birds.<<

This may be very prudent to do so. I like to look at things from the
opposite side (so to speak) from what others do and that at times helps in
discovering other methods/behaviors or ideas. I don't think Dial has fully
comprehended what he has done. He has opened our eyes more fully and now
gives us a new idea (a very good and important idea) to explore and give the
ancient world new life. This is very exciting!!!



Tracy L. Ford
P. O. Box 1171
Poway Ca  92074