RE: FUCHSIA and the Ostrom Symposium Volume (long...)

["Williams, Tim" <TiJaWi@agron.iastate.edu>]

OK, where to start...

> I think that the, as I hope, logical sequence below supports FUCHSIA
> over all proposed alternatives. It is probably biased, in that my main
> thought in writing this was "is that stuff in any way compatible with 
> FUCHSIA", 

Saves me the trouble of pointing that out.

I'll mention only two things, so as not to eat up too much bandwidth:

> Fails to show (actually doesn't even attempt) why a sane winged runner
> would suddenly begin to flap its wings at maximum speed. Why would
> anyone do that, without knowing a priori that doing so increases speed 
> and/or leads to takeoff?

Instinct, perhaps?  Ostrom provided a step-by-step, gradualistic scenario on
how a prey-catching forelimb might have changed over to a lift- and
thrust-generating wing that carried the insect-eating biped into the air -
thereby bringing the insect-eater closer to its intended prey.  However, one
may speculate that the inception of flapping - whether by a ground-running
predator or a tree-climbing glider - was spontaneous and driven by instinct,
rather than guided incrementally by the evolutionary process.


> Pronounces this on p. 266: "but this is a somewhat different motion than
> the flight stroke". :-)

Ah, the wonder of evolution.  The point made by Gauthier, Gishlick and
others is that the biomechanical hardware was present in ground-hunting
maniraptorans for the conversion of the predatory stroke into the flight
stroke.  No author has claimed the two motions to be identical.



Tim


------------------------------------------------------------ 



Timothy J. Williams, Ph.D. 

USDA-ARS Researcher 
Agronomy Hall 
Iowa State University 
Ames IA 50014 

Phone: 515 294 9233 
Fax:   515 294 9359