Re: Neoflightless Theropods and Roadrunners

[MariusRomanus@aol.com]

Timothy J. Williams, Ph.D. wrote:

>BTW, the idea that feathered forelimbs were initially employed for stability 
>during running turns....<

Yup..... Old idea.... sounds about right.. 1980 something. I still have my 
"Ranger Rick's Dinosaur" book where it talks about it. :-)

>The issue you raise is whether or not the way a roadrunner uses its wings 
>while running is a reversion to (or a recapitulation of) the incipient 
>pre-flight behavior of avian ancestors.  In the same vein is Greg Paul's 
>suggestion that the weak gliding-flight of kakapo parrots (which is derived 
>for Neornithes, which began fully-flighted) might be similar to the primitive 
>flight capabilities of early birds.  I think both scenarios are entirely 
>credible - and I have seen no data which directly refutes them.<

Yes, yes, and Yes again.

I guess there is no reason to quote the rest of what you wrote since I pretty 
much agree with all of it. When diving into the dark and dreary realm of 
theorizing the behaviors employed by extinct organims, it's like playing pin 
the tail on the donkey.... only you never get to take the blindfold off to see 
if you got it right. The only thing I was really saying was that in the case of 
the roadrunner, the use of its arms as directional devices on terra ferma is 
obviously an extention of their uses employed while in the air... not vice 
versa. Since we can't know for sure whether or not feathered non-avians were 
using their arms in such a way BEFORE their descendants took to the air, I like 
to at least ground my thinking in the available facts on behavior that we can 
observe from their extant relatives.... Mr Paul's case in point.... while also 
using some parallels found in other such apparent sitations... functionally 
speaking of course... like that of my whale example. This wa!
y,!
 I at least try to make it look as if I'm not participating in a "just so" 
story. :-)  And again, as you said, none of this can really be validated 
completely for extinct organims.... But it's oh so much fun to dream about it.

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

Kris