re: the bipedal ptero-challenge

[aegyptiacus@aol.com]

Ronald I. Orenstein  wrote :

Well, have a look at a sparrow sometime.  Many birds (indeed most) can take off 
directly from a standing or perched position, with no running necessary.  of 
course this starts with a bipedal STANCE, but that is not the same thing as 
bipedal LOCOMOTION.
<snip>

I'm not arguing against such evidence. I'm not at perched pterosaurs, I was 
merely stating that, if tracks there are, so the trackmakers must have taken 
off one way or another. I should have precised my thinking : it might be easy 
for light fliers, but if you look at some seagulls or albatroses, they do run 
while flapping their wings before taking off. I still can't imagine 
*Quetzalcoatlus*, *Ornithocheirus* or *Pteranodon* just take off without a bit 
of running (These are big ones but I'm sure it must be true for some 
middle-sized pterosaurs). This, in my mind, still doesn't make them bipedal. 
Just a help for take-off operations.

Cheers,
Jean-Michel