Re: Archaeopteryx and 'sickle-claw' info questions

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

>
>In G. Paul's Predatory Dinosaurs of the World, he reconstructs 
>Arachaeopteryx as possessing a 'sickle-claw', much like a miniature 
>version of the one Velociraptor has.  Has this been disproven, or is 
>it still a possibility?

    This has never been really embraced by most people. It is possible 
given the discovery of basal birds with such an arrangement, but at 
most, if it was present in Archaeopteryx, it was less developed.

>For that matter, how many 'sickle-clawed' dinosaurs/birds are out 
>there?  And is there any place I can find information about them on 
>the Net? 

Dromaeosaurs, troodontids, "Megaraptor", and Noasaurus are the 
sickle-clawed dinosaurs. And there is a Madagascaran sickle-clawed bird 
and if I remember correctly, an Argentine sickle-clawed bird.

 MattTroutman

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