Re: Archaeopteryx paper in Naturwissenschaften online

["Nick Gardner" <ratites637@hotmail.com>]

Chatterjee & Templin wrote
> Despite broad acceptance of its arboreal life
> style from anatomical, phylogenetic, and ecological
> evidence, a new version of the cursorial model was
> proposed recently asserting that a running Archaeopteryx
> could take off from the ground using thrust and sustain
> flight in the air.

What phylogenetic evidence is there that _Archaeopteryx_ was arboreal?  Come 
to think of it, what the heck does phylogeny have to do with _A_'s 
arboreality?

> Phugoid gliding

Do I want to even know where the term "phugoid" derives from?  Anyway, I'd 
have to say that _A_ hardly seems comparable to a squirrel.  Has anyone 
determined if there is any advantage (more efficient?) to arboreal upwards 
leaping (as put forth by Paul 1988), aside from getting higher?


Nick Gardner

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