Re: [dinosaur] Theropod and bird lifestyles from ungual bone curvatures (free pdf)

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

Gesendet:ÂDonnerstag, 06. Februar 2020 um 07:59 Uhr
Von:Â"Tim Williams" <tijawi@gmail.com>

> The fact that individual unguals from the same species or even the
> same specimen could produce "conflicting predictions" tells us how
> fraught using ungual curvature is for determing ecologies. These
> "conflicting predictions" were also the fate of_Jeholornis_ and
> _Sapeornis_, in additon to _Archaeopteryx_, _Confuciusornis_, and
> _Microraptor_. There's nothing wrong with this. It just tells us
> that the ecologies of these maniraptorans were complex, and don't fit
> neatly into discrete categories (arboreal, predatory, scansorial,
> terrestrial).
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...if we're not simply looking at taphonomic distortion.

On the other hand, if the differences between left and right sides of the same 
individual are real, they're telling us claw curvature simply isn't 100% 
genetically determined. What's not genetically determined isn't heritable and 
isn't accessible to natural selection.