Re: Quo vadis, T. rex?

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 96-02-02 01:55:33 EST, pharrinj@PLU.edu (Nicholas J.
Pharris) writes:

>Actually, I'm not being quite fair to little Compy.  If it could be shown 
>that mets II and IV touch each other in this animal, it could make a 
>suitable tyrannosaur ancestor.  The original specimen of _Compsognathus_ 
>is not preserved well enough to convince me entirely that the phalangeal 
>count is correct.  Is the French specimen any better?
>
>

There's an annoying artifact that lies right across the manus of the French
specimen--maybe a piece of indeterminate fossilized plant matter--that
prevents close observation of the manus and indeed caused the original
describers to imagine their specimen was a different species of
_Compsognathus_ with a flipper for a forelimb(!).