PRE-OLSHEVSKY BCF

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

Dinogeorge et al. might be interested in these refs (if you hadn't seen 
them already):

Abel, O. 1911.  Die Vorfahren der Vogel und ihre Lebensweise.  Verh. 
Zool. Bot. Ges. Wien, 61: 144-191.

Abel, O. 1920.  _Lehrbuch der Palaozoologie_.  Jena: Gustav Fischer 
Verlag.

I got these two out of Witmer's _Origins of the Higher Groups of 
Tetrapods_ paper.  I haven't read them yet (because they're in German 
and I have no idea about the journal in the first one), but Witmer 
summarized the basic outline of the papers:

"Othenio Abel (1911) agreed that birds and theropods possessed important 
similiarities and was among those who argued for a common ancestry.  For 
Abel, however, this common ancestor was an arboreal animal.  The avian 
descendents of this ancestor simply remained in the trees, whereas the 
theropods became secondarily teresstrial."  Witmer 1991; 438. 

So in response to somebody's claim that Olshevsky came up with the idea 
of secondary flightless or arboreal theropods, let me say that it was 
Abel who first developed the idea.  Anyway, George deserves credit for 
coming up with the "complete picture".

Also, before I go on, I must give a real positive endorsement of 
_Origins of the Higher Groups of Tetrapods_.  Some of the best articles 
in there are Witmer's and L. Martin's (excellent article on the anatomy 
of _Archaeopteryx_ where he argues convincingly that the squamosal was 
absent in the creature).  The whole book is good.

Matt Troutman

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