Thursday, January 24, 2013

Good Introduction

Here is a good introduction to the basics of pterosaurs. Note the similarities to birds.


It mentions the actinofibrils, the sternum, the pneumatic bones, the pteroid bone, the semi-circular canals and the flocculus.

Note the mention of actinofibrils and bird feathers starting at 0:40.

Here is some general info on bird feather tracts:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/studyingbirdsi/feather_tracts.gif







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6 comments:

  1. Looking at skeletons and flight modes, pterosaurs resemble gulls and albatrosses. Similarly, some land dinosaurs resemble ostriches and chickens, and some aquatic dinosaurs resemble penguins.

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  2. You are using the word "dinosaur" in an imprecise way.
    Could you restate your point with more precision about which "dinosaur" taxa you are referring to please?

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  3. Ornithomimus and ostriches resemble each other, for example.

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  4. Ornithomimus and ostriches apparently do resemble each other. For quite a while I thought that ornithomimosaurs were related to birds. But further research has caused me to conclude that they were simply dinosaurs*.
    If (and it is a big if) they were related to birds they would be secondarily flightless birds (members of Aviremigia).

    You also mentioned "acquatic dinosaurs". What taxon (taxa) did you have in mind?


    *
    http://pterosaurnet.blogspot.ca/2012/10/ornithomimosaurs.html

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  5. I had Dolichorhynchops and penguins in mind. Looking more closely at the skeletons, the resemblance now seems superficial, especially the lack of keel and the toes on the feet/rear-flippers.

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