Re: *Mauisaurus* vs large pterosaurs

[don ohmes <d_ohmes@yahoo.com>]

--- On Thu, 10/8/09, Tim Williams <tijawi@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I've never seen this particular idea, but I have heard a
> similar idea in "reverse".  

An objection to it has been raised offlist: apparently elasmos would have had a 
hard time eating a ptero (narrow throat, weak dentition). That, and swimming 
speed perhaps too slow to allow a credible strike. So maybe its a little weak, 
even as a cartoon. 

I don't think head/heart pressure differential concerns are enough to kill it 
as a cartoon, but could be wrong. Still, if sauropods can get away w/ it long 
enough to strip a tree, it only seems fair to allow Thalassomedon, et al, the 
couple of seconds needed to snag a ptero...
 
> The extinction of pterosaurs provided no relief to
> air-gulping fishes, because by that time birds had radiated,
> and they were just as unforgiving.

Nobody gives the fish any breaks, especially the mouth-breathers...