Re: 11th specimen of Archaeopteryx

["Richard W. Travsky" <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

On Mon, 24 Oct 2011, Habib, Michael wrote:

> Tim's point regarding birds nesting in abrasive plants is well taken, as 
> is Don's comments on Cycads etc.  However, I still find myself asking 
> the question: is there any reason we keep trying to put Archaeopteryx 
> (and close relatives) into elevated positions to begin with?  Don 
> already pointed out that, at best, we simply cannot exclude some 
> arboreal roosting, etc for Archaeopteryx.  We have no evidence that 
> Archie was absolutely confined to terrestrial life, but we have nothing 
> to suggest it was arboreal in any meaningful way, either.  As a result, 
> I find myself a bit mystified by the continued attempts at building 
> scenarios in which Archaeopteryx spent time climbing about.  Yes, 
> perhaps it did.  But one can imagine that many maniraptorans could get 
> into trees, given the right tree.  Deinonychus could probably get into a 
> tree, but I'm not sure the possibility merits much discussion.  It's a 
> level of behavioral specificity we cannot determine in fossil animals, 
> as best I can tell.

Makes me think of a road runner...