Re: Bird evolution

[Betty Cunningham <bettyc@flyinggoat.com>]

Leon Retief wrote:
> According to the science journal Nature it roamed the Gobi desret 70
> million years ago and the animal - completely new to science - 
> looks for all the world like a transition between a dinosaur and a bird.
> (the fossil seems to be the first one found with a  skull - LR)

It is the first Alvarezsauridae found with a skull.
Archeopteryx, the earliest recognised bird, has a skull, as well as
Confuciornis and Sinosauropteryx, and of these they have varying amounts
of dinosaur-like traits retained in the skull 

-Betty Cunningham