Re: Waimanu & avian evolution (comments)

[jrc <jrccea@bellsouth.net>]

The earliest that I know of, of substantial size, date from about 5 million 
years after the K/T boundary, giving them adequate time to evolve into the 
niches originally filled by the large, late K pterosaurs.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 19, 2006 11:55 AM
Subject: Re: Waimanu & avian evolution (comments)


> If Cretaceous odontopterygiforms were albatross-style marine soarers, as 
> proposed for Cenozoic odontopterygiforms, then pterosaurs may have had 
> some competition in the late Mesozoic.  Or else, the odontopterygiforms 
> originally held a different niche (perhaps they were wading birds, like 
> many anseriforms), and only filled the marine soarer niche in the 
> Paleocene, after the extinction of pterosaurs.