Re: A morphological query

["Jordan Mallon" <j_mallon@hotmail.com>]

> From: StephanPickering@cs.com

> W. Nachtigall, in his 1974 Insects in flight, noted that macrochaetes
> are sound absorbers, protecting them from bats and some (?most) avian
> predators. Let us speculate: would the feathers of the small theropods 
> >have absorbed sound, protecting them from larger predators?

Are you suggesting that maybe some dinosaurs used a sort of echolocation for 
tracking prey?  I'm by no means an expert, but I can't really picture that 
happening.  I mean, I'm sure a dinosaur's "proto"-feathers could absorb 
sound to some degree.  But what kind of animals were feeding on small 
theropods?  Bigger theropods.  And I'm not so sure they were so well 
equipped as to use echolocation to track prey.
On another note, what sort of birds are known to use echolocation?  The only 
ones I'm aware of are swiflets.

Jordan Mallon

http://www.geocities.com/paleoportfolio/

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