Re: Tail length & preening

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

"Jaime A. Headden" wrote:

> 2) Most animals that groom usually rely on themselves to do the deed,
> and it's similarly unlikely that *Microraptor* was unable to clean its
> tail.

Not always. Male lions can't groom their own manes, and horses regularly
groom each other where they can't reach themselves. Perhaps some
structures can only evolve in a social context (solitary cats never
developed manes - even cave paintings of lone cave lions never show
manes).

As far as Microraptor (or any other "winged" dino) was concerned, I
suspect that aerodynamic feather fans would have co-evolved with
grooming ability by necessity.

-- 
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Dann Pigdon                   Australian Dinosaurs:
GIS / Archaeologist         http://www.geocities.com/dannsdinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia        http://www.alphalink.com.au/~dannj/
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