Re: New alvarezsaurid

["Matthew Troutman" <m_troutman@hotmail.com>]

>However, you are wrong on. . .
>
>> "Rahona" is not a link between Archy and dromaeosaurs. Archaeopteryx 
is
>> too specialized and birdlike to be ancestral to dromaeosaurs.
>
>. . .for the old reason of relying on flight specific features as 
useful
>phylogenetic markers.

     I'm going to make a post refuting this secondarily flightless issue 
in detail.


>>    Oviraptorosaurs . . . lack all of the characters that . . . define
>birds.  <
>
>They've got the extraordinary bird forelimb structure, and I'll bet 
they (or
>their ancestors) had proper feathers too!  That will be  good enough 
for me
>when we get them.  (I'm reluctant to mention their uncinants since I 
think
>it was you that told me about them, and I down want to throw them back 
at
>you!)

     The features could have evolved for something else, such as 
climbing.

MattTroutman

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com