Re: Feather Flap

[dinoboygraphics@aol.com]

> > > Yes, but an unreversed hallux is not an indication of 
terrestriality, only of marginal perching ability.
These are two different things, as long as something with a trunk of 
more than a few cm diameter grows in
the habitat. Colugos and _Draco_ are arboreal and they glide, but they 
do not "perch" on branches that often.<<<

Right...but colugos and draco have other specializations for living in 
trees, such as limbs that can be laterally splayed, (realitively) 
shorter manus and pes (for better leverage while climbing), highly 
flexible ankle and wrist joints, and flexible backs. And their gliding 
surface is confluent with the abdomen, like essentailly any other 
gliding arboreal organism. Winged dinosaurs lack all of these, 
including the fact that the phylogenetically earliest wings appear 
distally on the limbs, and are not confluent with the abdominal 
airfoil...exactly the opposite of arboreal gliding animals.

Again, it's not that Archaeopteryx could not have gotten in a 
tree...it's that it shows no specializations for doing so relative to 
its closest relatives.


Scott Hartman
Science Director
Wyoming Dinosaur Center
110 Carter Ranch Rd.
Thermopolis, WY 82443
(800) 455-3466 ext. 230
Cell: (307) 921-8333

www.skeletaldrawing.com


-----Original Message-----
From: evelyn sobielski <koreke77@yahoo.de>
To: dinoboygraphics@aol.com
Sent: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 11:00 am
Subject: Re: Feather Flap



--- dinoboygraphics@aol.com schrieb:

> >>>If people like Scott are right and taxa like
> Archaeopteryx and
> Microraptor with unreversed halluces were still
> terrestrial, the most
> basal arboreal maniraptorans would be jeholornithids
> and
> omnivoropterygids. The latter clades preserve seeds
> and gastroliths in
> their body cavities, indicating at least partially
> herbivorous
> habits.<<<

Yes, but an unreversed hallux is not an indication of
terrestriality, only of marginal perching ability.
These are two different things, as long as something
with a trunk of more than a few cm diameter grows in
the habitat. Colugos and _Draco_ are arboreal and they
glide, but they do not "perch" on branches that often.

Eike


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