Rahona/Vorona

[Graeme Worth <endocrin@opera.iinet.net.au>]

Jaime Headden wrote
>*Vorona* was found a long way away from *Rahona* (don't get too used to 
>the name, it's going to change), and Feduccia either doesn't know this, 
>or didn't tell you.
What exactly do you mean by "a long way", Jaime? The Rahona paper states
that both Rahona and Vorona were found in the same SMALL quarry, without any
relative positions. I haven't seen the Vorona paper, which might have the
info, though doubtful as Rahona hadn't been published at that stage.
Although Forster et al think it unlikely that the wing is from a different
animal, they are careful to note that the possibility cannot be ruled out.
It might be worth noting, however, that their cladistic analysis was done
both with and without the wing characters included, and in both cases Rahona
came out in the same place, with Archaeopteryx and (Unenlagia? - don't have
the paper in front of me at the moment). So from the point of view of
dinosaur-bird relationships, whether or not the wing belongs to Rahona or
Vorona may not be that critical.
Graeme Worth