 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Natural Science Forum / Biology / Paleontology / June 2007Were mammals first to fly? article link
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061213/ap_on_sc/gliding_mammal > http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061213/ap_on_sc/gliding_mammal Does Sally Fields (the flying nun) qualify? George > > http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061213/ap_on_sc/gliding_mammal > > Does Sally Fields (the flying nun) qualify? No. There was only one of her, and she was not a breeder, so no species could be established no matter how impressive the novelty.  SignatureJohn S. Wilkins, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Biohumanities Project University of Queensland - Blog: scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts "He used... sarcasm. He knew all the tricks, dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and... satire. He was vicious." >> > http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061213/ap_on_sc/gliding_mammal >> >> Does Sally Fields (the flying nun) qualify? >> > No. There was only one of her, and she was not a breeder, so no species > could be established no matter how impressive the novelty. Ah shucks. I liked the hat! George John, I have to say that was my reaction too. I don't get it Can anyone be kind enough to explain? And also, is gliding technically flying? Maybe it's just me but I was taught at a young age that it wasn't. Like in grade school we'd say: "Hey look! It's a flying squirrel!" and our teacher would just say "No, it's just gliding." > John, > I have to say that was my reaction too. I don't get it [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > "Hey look! It's a flying squirrel!" and our teacher would just say "No, > it's just gliding." If you can't go up under your own power you can't fly. >> John, >> I have to say that was my reaction too. I don't get it [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > >If you can't go up under your own power you can't fly. If you glide in air that is rising faster than your sink rate, you are rising relative to the ground. With a flat enough glide path, and the ability to find parcels of rising air, you can do quite a bit of flying. Your flight could be initiated by climbing a tree or a cliff and jumping off, or perhaps paying out a length of silk, like a spider might do, until the breeze of a passing thermal lifts you off the ground. Of course I'm not saying that mammals employ these methods, unless you count a person in a sailplane, but the atmosphere provides many ways of hitching a ride, thermal soaring, slope soaring and dynamic soaring being among them. >>> John, >>> I have to say that was my reaction too. I don't get it [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > many ways of hitching a ride, thermal soaring, slope soaring and > dynamic soaring being among them. Yep, baby spiderlings use silk threads caught in the wind to ride the air currents for hundreds or even thousands of miles. They still can't fly. >>>> John, >>>> I have to say that was my reaction too. I don't get it [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] >Yep, baby spiderlings use silk threads caught in the wind to ride the air >currents for hundreds or even thousands of miles. They still can't fly. Imagine if you could employ a suitably scaled length of thread that would enable you to rise off the ground, and travel through the air. How is it that you would not be flying? >>>>> John, >>>>> I have to say that was my reaction too. I don't get it [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > would enable you to rise off the ground, and travel through the air. > How is it that you would not be flying? One the wind is providing the power and two it won't work because of the way gravity works. You double in size and you have four times the volume and you weigh eight times as much and a rope that size is going to lay on the ground unless you are having a tornado or something. If I slipped a number correct me. I don't use that formula once a decade. >>>>>> John, >>>>>> I have to say that was my reaction too. I don't get it [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] >weigh eight times as much and a rope that size is going to lay on the ground >unless you are having a tornado or something. But for the spider, it does work. Why is it not flying? Or imagine that you are on a planet where the gravitational and atmospheric variables combined in such a way that a 200 pound animal could pay out a length of thread and travel through the air, would that also not be flying? I view the limitation that one must "go up under their own power" in order to fly more liberally that perhaps you do. If flying is defined as traveling through the atmosphere while not touching the ground, then employing any quality of the physical universe that causes it to happen would be one's "own power". Whether the mechanism requires the conversion of bird food into bird, the metamorphisis of dirt and sunshine into a dandelion seed, or the evolution of a brain filled with the intention to fly and then using combustible materials to make it happen makes no difference to my way of thinking. They are all the result of one's own power (ignoring for now the question of measuring the intentions of birds, spiders and dandelion seeds). As for waiting for tornado's to enable one's flying, that would be problematic, at least as far as commercial viability goes, but it could provide transport for fish and frogs to new environments. >If I slipped a number correct me. I don't use that formula once a decade. "William Wingstedt" <William_Wingstedt@comcast.net> schrieb: > If flying is defined as traveling through the atmosphere while > not touching the ground, then employing any quality of the > physical universe that causes it to happen would be one's > "own power". Try a search for "Volaticotherium antiquus". Regards, Joachim >> John, >> I have to say that was my reaction too. I don't get it [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > If you can't go up under your own power you can't fly. That or you need Viagra. >>> > http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061213/ap_on_sc/gliding_mammal >>> [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > George I like bathos. Every body should take at least one every year whether they need it or not. > >>> > http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061213/ap_on_sc/gliding_mammal > >>> [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > I like bathos. Every body should take at least one every year whether they > need it or not. Are you being satirical? Hot here in the tropes, isn't it? SignatureJohn S. Wilkins, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Biohumanities Project University of Queensland - Blog: scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts "He used... sarcasm. He knew all the tricks, dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and... satire. He was vicious." > http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061213/ap_on_sc/gliding_mammal So let me get this straight: because a gliding mammal is only a few million years younger than the oldest known bird, we infer that flying mammals are older than flying theropods? And have we agreed to ignore pterosaurs and insects while we're at it? > http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061213/ap_on_sc/gliding_mammal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volaticotherium_antiquus SignaturePosted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com > http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061213/ap_on_sc/gliding_mammal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volaticotherium_antiquus SignaturePosted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2009 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.