more on pseudosuchians...

[Jeffrey Martz <martz@holly.ColoState.EDU>]

      My impression based on what I have read so far suggests to me that
the main tactics employed by paleontologists advocating the pseudosuchian
origin of birds are based more on attacks on theropod-Archaeopteryx
similarities rather then actually presenting bird-like pseudosuchian
characteristics that do not also happen to be archosaur apomorphies.  All
I know is that Tarsitano & Hecht's only piece of evidence for a
bird-pseudosuchian connection was a superficial resemblance between the
coracoids of _Archaeopteryx_ and _Euparkeria_.  
     By the way, doesn't Herrerasaurus have _EXTREMELY_ atrophied digits
IV and V?  Doesn't this give weight to the idea that Herrerasaurus is not
only _not_ a basal dinosaur (though potentially a basal theropod) but that
theropod digits really are I, II, III, rather then II, III, IV?

LN Jeff
O-