Re: Greg Paul is right (again); or "Archie's not a birdy"

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

On Thu, Jul 28th, 2011 at 10:17 AM, Tim Williams <tijawi@gmail.com> wrote:

> Coincidentally, among mammals aerial gliding has evolved exclusively
> in herbivores.

The earliest bat fossils appear to be insectivores though. Perhaps when 
predators develop flight, 
they jump straight to active flight and forgo a passive gliding phase? Or at 
the very least, any 
passive gliding stage might be shortened (geologically speaking) by intense 
selective pressure to 
retain the ability to persue prey (which I would imagine parachuting membranes 
would hinder 
greatly). It might explain why the earliest pterosaur and bat fossils already 
seem to 
have 'advanced' flight adaptations.

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Dann Pigdon
Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
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