RE: New Mesozoic bird papers (advance publication)

["Jason Brougham" <jaseb@amnh.org>]

Perhaps you mean screamers, which are the Anhimidae (not actually ducks).



> I have just been reading about the flying steamer duck in Darren Naish's
> Tetrapod Zoology Book 1.  This duck uses keratanised knobs on the
> capometacarpi to beat other birds to death.  The duck from hell!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ronald Orenstein [mailto:ron.orenstein@rogers.com]
> Sent: 17 December 2010 15:16
> To: archosauromorph2@hotmail.com; dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: Re: New Mesozoic bird papers (advance publication)
>
> Without having seen the paper, I wonder if climbing and prey capture are
> the
>
> only options.  How about aggression between individuals of the same
> species,
>
> which is what some spur-winged birds use their wings for today?
>
>  Ronald Orenstein
> 1825 Shady Creek Court
> Mississauga, ON L5L 3W2
> Canada
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Brad McFeeters <archosauromorph2@hotmail.com>
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Sent: Fri, December 17, 2010 12:10:03 AM
> Subject: RE: New Mesozoic bird papers (advance publication)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------
>> Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:51:09 +1100
>> From: tijawi@gmail.com
>> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
>> Subject: Re: New Mesozoic bird papers (advance publication)
>>
>> Which brings me to this: "When birds developed an effective backstroke
>> permitting easy ascent from flat surfaces, the need for manual claws
>> disappeared, which would suggest that they were primarily used for
>> climbing tree trunks and had little function in prey capture."
>>
>>
>> I fail to see why manual claws couldn't be used for *both* climbing
>> and prey capture - especially among the first birds. After all, if
>> _Velociraptor_ had feathered forelimbs (based on the presence of quill
>> knobs), and used its forelimbs in prey capture - why couldn't some
>> early birds have done the same? Although I'm not suggesting that
>> birds attacked large prey the way _Velociraptor_ did.
>
> If the claws were used for something other than climbing, why were they
> lost
> at
> the same time birds developed the ability to ascend without climbing?
> It's
> obviously not an airtight deduction, but still an interesting observation
> to
>
> think about, especially if the correlated claw reduction + improved
> backstroke
> evolved more than once in different bird clades (did it?  I haven't read
> the
>
> paper yet either).
>
>


Jason Brougham
Senior Principal Preparator
Department of Exhibition
American Museum of Natural History
81st Street at Central Park West
212 496 3544
jaseb@amnh.org