Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 beta 3/9/83; site winston.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utcsri!ubc-vision!winston!kovish
From: kovish@winston.UUCP (Barrie Kovish)
Newsgroups: net.bio
Subject: Flying dinosaurs.
Message-ID: <148@winston.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Oct-85 14:28:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: winston.148
Posted: Wed Oct  2 14:28:13 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 3-Oct-85 07:10:54 EDT
Organization: New Media Technologies, Burnaby, BC, CANADA
Lines: 51

[]

Here is a question and a proposal regarding "flying"
reptiles in the mesozoic (?). First the proposal.

I have seen parts of a debate as to weather some of the
larger reptiles could fly or were only gliders. Most
of the arguments seem to assume that the reptiles 
either were carion eaters or ate fish. Both of these
seem some what unlikely if the organisms were only week
gliders. My suspicions are that these organisms could fly 
much better than we think. However there is another possibility
albeit somewhat bizzare. 

Maybe these large flying reptiles were filter feeding plankton eaters!
I am using the word plankton to indicate small airborn organisms
probably insects. I suspect there is good anatomical reasons not
to believe this, however fossil remains are typically far from complete.
There are several reasons to believe this proposal is possible.

1. There are known examples of avian plankton eaters today. The frogmouths 
   (birds) which attract insects into their mouths by pheromones.

2. There certainly no shortage of marine plankton eaters. They are all
   slow swimmers. Hence by symetry an airial plankton eater should be a
   week flier.

3. A plankton eater would not have to land very often. Possibly only to
   breed. There are I beleive some species of marine birds which stay aloft
   for years at a time.

4. Reptiles require less energy per unit mass. Hence a lower density
   of insects is needed to support a reptilian plankton eater than an
   avian one.

5. Point 4 again only gliders require less energy than fliers. Hence even 
   a lower density of energy is required.

6. Insect eating is certainly one of the main preoccupations of
   modern fliers such as Bats, Birds and Insects.

So now the question.
If the above is not true who was eating all the flying insects I suspect
were quite abundant in the mesosoic?

Is there anyone out there with a good enough memory to comment?
-- 
    Barrie Kovish
    New Media Technologies
    ..decvax!microsoft!ubc-vision!winston!kovish
    ..ihnp4!alberta!ubc-vision!winston!kovish


Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com