Ptero poling marks (testing the hypotheses)

[Phil Bigelow <bigelowp@juno.com>]

On Fri, 21 Apr 2006 13:03:31 -0700 (PDT) "Jaime A. Headden"
<qilongia@yahoo.com> writes:

> One can also build models of pterosaur hands and feet and 
> make
> walking experiments as with crutches, and see which sediments 
> compress or do
> not compress as easily under the same walking scenarios.
> One can 
> presumably do
> the former on a computer,


I think one would have an easier go of it just modeling the appropriate
parts out of Sculpy modeling clay and heat-curing it.  Besides, half the
fun will be the field trips to collect the various different substrates
on which you will conduct the tests (although it would be better to do
the experiements in the field.  Excavated substrate doesn't retain the
same properties as identical, _in situ_, substrate).

Real-world modeling also removes unknowns in the sediment properties that
the computer program may miss.  With real-world modeling, you don't need
to know all of the variables.  It's a more results-driven project.  With
computer modeling, it is more of a test-bed-driven project ("see what my
computer can do").


> and I think AutoCAD and some Photoshop 
> plugins will
> allow one to compare the digital area of pixels in a non-transparent 
> part of a
> gif file.


For the cash-strapped, here's an old vrtpaleo post, courtesy Rich Hengst:


<<<Two freeware programs that I have found to be quite good for measuring
2-D areas:

The first is available in several platforms:  
NIH Image - if you are a Mac Fan
http://www.scioncorp.com/frames/fr_download_now.htm
Scion - the Windows counterpart (same as above)
Image/J - the Java version (My personal favorite) 
http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/  ;

The second is UTHSCSA Image Tool 
(Windows)  http://ddsdx.uthscsa.edu/dig/itdesc.html

Image tool is really nice, but I tend to get unexpected system freezes
with it.  Calibration is extremely easy to use.  

In a 2-D area measurement, I find either of these to work very, very,
well.

Rich>>>



<pb>
--
"We recognize, however dimly, that greater efficiency, ease, and security
may come at a substantial price in freedom, that law and order can be a
doublethink version of oppression, that individual liberties surrendered,
for whatever good reason, are freedoms lost." - Walter Cronkite, preface
to the 1984 edition of George Orwell's _1984_.