Re: pterosaur aerodynamics

[David Peters <davidrpeters@earthlink.net>]

Meanwhile there is evidence in some specimens that ankles WERE  
membrane anchoring.

>>>>>> Show us/me your jpeg, Senator McCarthy. Unless you're talking  
about the uropatagium, but then we weren't talking about the  
uropatagium.
> One important piece of evidence in the nature of pterosaur wing  
> membranes is
> the nature of the fifth toe. Peters has reconstructed this toe as a  
> free digit
> in virtually all reconstructions I have seem. However, in at least two
> different pterosaurs (*Sordes* and *Jeholopterus*) the digit is  
> associated to
> the margin of a membrane.

>>>>>> Again, show us/me your jpeg and/or reconstruction.

> Unlike bats, the leg is not twisted distally and I
> think it unlikely the digit was oriented medially to support a  
> uropatagium,
> though possible if the digit itself twists toward the tail.  
> However, it seems
> more likely the digit, as articulated in countless specimens, is  
> laterally
> oriented,

>>>>>>Except that we have a footprint that shows it posteriorly  
oriented. Remember
Sauria Aberrante? And its predecessor, Rotodactylus?

> and may even fold laterally, collapsing into the foot during
> taphonomy (BIG speculation!),

>>>>>>Better to stick to the data rather than speculate.

> which would nonetheless allow the integumental
> association be tarsal, not hip-based. Yet this does not argue for a  
> particular
> chord design, only distal articulation of the wing membrane.

>>>>>>You mean proximal? Distal = wing tip?

-- dp

> These are two
> distinct pieces of anatomy.
>
>   Cheers,
>
> Jaime A. Headden
> http://bitestuff.blogspot.com/
>
> "Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)
>
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