Re: poling dangers

[jrc <jrccea@bellsouth.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Peters" <davidrpeters@earthlink.net>
To: "Michael Habib" <mhabib5@jhmi.edu>
Cc: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2006 8:46 PM
Subject: Re: poling dangers


> On Apr 16, 2006, at 2:19 PM, Michael Habib wrote:
>
> > The only thing about habitual "poling" that worries me is that the 
> > animal cannot take off while wading in that manner.  If that was a  major 
> > mode of feeding, it would leave a Quetz. individual very  vulnerable much 
> > of the time.

It would.  But an individual would be able to do it, if willing to take the 
risk.  It sort of brings up the question of why the front legs are so much 
longer than the distance from the tip of the snout to the nostrils.

> Could it take off? The body is floating like a football at the  surface. 
> Raising the wings brings them into the air. Perhaps it took  off like a 
> duck?

No way.  A duck the size of either type of quetz couldn't take off.