Re: Campbell's even crazier than a MANIAC? (archeopter

[Michael Habib <mhabib5@jhmi.edu>]

Sim Koning wrote:

>  What I noticed was that these animals were "flapping". By this I mean 
> they were providing a small amount of thrust by undulating their tail 
> up and down. Here is clear example of the most advanced gliding mammal 
> in the world using a primitive form of flapping thrust.

I'll have to look back at the videos in some detail, but I'm fairly 
certain that the undulations in question are a stabilization effect, 
and do not produce thrust.

> I also wanted to ask, do animals that live in heavily forested areas 
> fossilize easily? If not, this could explain why the major groups of 
> flying animals seem to "pop up out of nowhere". Their ancestors could 
> have lived in thick jungles where animals would rapidly decompose and 
> be consumed by predators.

The taphonomy of forests can be complicated - some forests have left 
extensive fossil remains, but many do not.  So yes, there could very 
well be a sampling bias related to taphonomy.

Cheers,

--Mike


Michael Habib, M.S.
PhD. Candidate
Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
1830 E. Monument Street
Baltimore, MD 21205
(443) 280 0181
habib@jhmi.edu