Re: FLYING RAPTOR NAMED

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

>Finally, the 'Madagascar flying raptor' has been given a name.  It will never
>be mistaken for _Vorona_ again.  Cathy Forster will be naming it _Rahona
>ostromi_ in friday's ish of Science.  The name means "Ostrom's menace from the
>clouds" in whatever language is native to northwestern Madagascar.

I was emailing with Forster yesterday: Rahona is Malagasy for
"threat/menace" AND "cloud": an interesting double meaning.

So, although others have beat me to it:
The Madagascan Flying Raptor paper is a few days from publication.  It has a
VERY retroverted, VERY distally placed first pedal digit, and one of the
posterodorsal projections on the ischium which doesn't show up in
dromaeosaurids, but is known in Archaeopteryx, Unenlagia, and other basal birds.

So: I don't want to see anybody calling Rahona "Vorona" ever again.  It has
its own name.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:th81@umail.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661