RE: Nemicolopterus

[Nick Pharris <npharris@umich.edu>]

Quoting Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>:


> Yep, the picture is amazing.
>
> However, the idea that _Nemicolopterus_ was either (a) a percher, or 
> (b) an insect-eater is not exactly compelling.

True.  Also, even if the authors' ecologial interpretations are all 
correct, their contention that "[t]he phylogenetic position of 
Nemicolopterus crypticus
suggests that the Ornithocheiroidea originated from crestless and 
toothless small insectivorous arboreal forms" is tenuous, since it's 
just as parsimonious to hypothesize that pterosaurs were big honkers 
all the way back to the base of Pterodactyloidea, with _N._ 
representing a specialized arboreal lineage with reduced body size.

Wait, now that I read that again, are they really suggesting that 
istiodactylids, ornithocheirids, and dsungaripterids came from 
toothless ancestors???


> As for insectivory, the skull of _Nemicolopterus_ is long and 
> slender, not broad and wide (as in anurognathids).  Anurognathids 
> have been interpreted as aerial insectivores (i.e., catching flying 
> insects on the wing) - like the modern frogmouth (which is 
> essentially what "Anurognathus" means).

[cough]_Batrachognathus_[cough]

--NP

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Nicholas J. Pharris
Department of Linguistics
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
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"Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity."
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