Brooding over dinos

["Norton, Patrick" <Patrick.Norton@state.me.us>]

Tom Hopp wrote:

<My point is: the wing is HIGHLY evolved for brooding as well --   
therefore I ask, on what grounds do we assume that flight came first?>

It seems to me that the preserved postion of the arms in the "brooding   
Oviraptor" fossil---an inverted V shape with the hand flexed   
posteriorly--strongly suggests that the creature possessed a patagium, a   
definite flight character. Since it is presumed that O did not fly, a   
patagium would indicate secondary flightlessness.