Re: Omni article

[Thomas_R_HOLTZ@umail.umd.edu (th81)]

>
>I was in a doctor's office yesterday and, for lack of anything better
>to read, picked up the June 1994 issue of Omni. It included an 
>article by someone whose name I didn't recognize (and have, unfortunately,
>forgotten in between the discussions of symptoms and blood pressure
>numbers) who asserted that, rather than birds being descended from
>dinosaurs, dinosaurs are descended from birds. In typical popular

The author was George Olshevsky, and the article was "The Birds came
First!".  This is essentially a reiteration of an hypothesis he put forth in
his catalog of archosaurian taxa from 1991.  Part of the main "evidence" is
a suite of characters (including three-fingered manus, grasphing fingers,
three-toed foot) which he regards as strictly arboreal features.  Many of
these, however, can be interpreted as prey-seizing and running features.

One interesting suggestion he has is that some of the small archosaurs of
the Triassic (Longisquama, Megalancosaurus, etc.) might be ornithodiran
(the dinosaur-bird clade).  I don't know if I buy that, but its worth
investigating.

Thomas R. HOLTZ
Vertebrate Paleontologist, Dept. of Geology
Email:Thomas_R_HOLTZ@umail.umd.edu (th81)
Phone:301-405-4084