Re: birds/dino-birds with teeth

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

John Conway (john_conway@mac.com) wrote:

<How about aerodynamic reasons? Having no lips, bird teeth would (very 
slightly) increase drag. This might go for toothless pterosaurs too. :-)>

  This would have required the presence of lips or such integumental
tissue around the mouth to begin with, which is a debated issue. Similar
to this, though, is that many birds with flaps of skin around the head or
neck tend to be relatively grounded or flightless, including cassowaries,
turkeys, and chickens. Some of the fastest or "best" fliers, such as the
swift (*Apus*) or the peregrine (*Falco*) have very shortened profiles, a
"retracted" head, and specifically a very short and small beak and hence a
small profile.

  Cheers,

=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making leaps 
in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do.  We should all 
learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather than zoom by it.

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