Re: Tiktaalik

["T. Michael Keesey" <keesey@gmail.com>]

On 4/6/06, John Conway <john.a.conway@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'd take a punt that were flightless pterosaurs somewhere in the Late
> Jurassic, when pterodactyloids on isolated islands didn't yet face
> competition from those scampering birds. Doubt they'll be discovered though.

Here's an idle thought I had the other day while reading Darren
Naish's blog (http://darrennaish.blogspot.com/): what if gigantic
adult pterodactyloids (like _Quetzalcoatlus_) were flightless? What if
they were fliers when young and segued into a more and more
terrestrial niche as they grew? That would remove the problem of
getting those gigantic things to take off.

I suppose a testable prediction would be adult forms more adapted to
terrestriality than juvenile forms--I don't know if there's an
appopriate ontogenetic series anywhere, though.

(I would place any stock in the idea, but I thought I'd toss it out
there to be ripped apart by the wolves of science.)
--
Mike Keesey
The Dinosauricon: http://dino.lm.com
Parry & Carney: http://parryandcarney.com