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Re: Mesozoic gliding mammal


----- Original Message ----- 

As I read the paper, the current count is that the general morphology of a
gliding patagium stretched between the fore and hind legs and with no
internal skeletal support has evolved at least nine separate times in
various mammal(-iform) lineages: the new beastie, the presumed but so-far
undiscovered ancestor of bats,

Since bat patagia have an internal skeletal support (the fingers), isn't it likely that their ancestor did also?


Without going off the typological or orthogenetic deep end, doesn't this
suggest that the mammalian Bauplan predisposes mammals to evolve one sort
of gliding morphology and very strongly predisposes them NOT to evolve
another?

It seems to me that two mammalian flight morpholgies appear to be present. One without internal support, the other with internal support. Am I missing something?