Re: Feather Flap

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Habib" <mhabib5@jhmi.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 3:45 AM

> I agree that there is a very real chance that the lack of tertiaries in 
> Archaeopteryx, at least, is an artifact.

Oops. I only thought about the apparent lack of secondaries in 
*Caudipteryx*, not that of tertiaries in Archie.

However, whether Archie had tertiaries or not, the fact that the tertiaries 
of birds look like an afterthought, a quick fix to fill a gap as opposed to 
remiges that are attached to the humerus, does look to me like the primaries 
and secondaries evolved first. The brooding scenario fits this, as do many 
other of the more terrestrial scenarios for wing evolution. Parachuting is 
more difficult to reconcile with this (though not impossible --  
*Rhacophorus*), and gliding... I don't know how. :-)

> The more likely explanation, at least for Archaeopteryx, is that the
> tertiaries (if present) would likely have been lying right over the
> body of the animal at death in most of the better Archie specimens
> (based on humeral positions).  As such, they would be destroyed during
> preparation to uncover the skeleton of the specimen.

Or the slab split between the bones and the rock, so that the tertiaries are 
hidden in the counterslab to this day.