Re: Cope's Rule in the Pterosauria - Hone & Benton 2007

[jbois@verizon.net]

>...I am personally a bit perplexed how pervasive the "competitive >exclusion 
>by other flying vertebrates" concept is.  It's not a bad >concept, per se, but 
>it is a little vague.

Yes...and if we are borrowing ecology principles, we might want to look at 
"character displacement"--interclade character displacement might be a good way 
of thinking about the _avoidance_ of competition driving directional 
selection...in this case, possible size increase in pterosaurs.