If memory serves me, you have written about attempts to breed Eagles to large sizes in Russia? and that they reach a certain size beyond which safe landings become crashes.
While the dictum "form follows function," is probably a wise one, it has little bearing on the size problem. As I would say that Quetzalcoatlus' form followed it's function within the conditions of that era, yet under the current conditions that large form would not have been permitted to follow its' function. So the question is not one of form following function, but rather scalability and changing conditions.StefanR wrote:Second, what Junglelord was referring to as form and function will hold in the case presented above. Actually too little is known about the precise habitats and niches
We don't need to have precise information of habits and niches, the point is that we are contemplating animals that have no niche in the present, hence there are no flying animals of that size today, why is that?
If one assumes that large pterosaurs could fly in the presently felt Earth gravity, it begs the question of why are today's flying animals of such small size by comparison? Why wouldn't some animal(s) today, with the ability of flight, have evolved to fill the ecological niche of the large pterosaurs? Why do we not see Sea Gulls or condors with 40' wingspans, or a giant eagle swooping down and flying off with a deer in its' talons?
StefanR and Junglelord,
I think I am having a deja vu,
Did we not have a thread on this in the old forum?
I think I am having a deja vu,
Did we not have a thread on this in the old forum?
nick c