Phil Currie talks about Sinosauropteryx

[MKIRKALDY <MKIRKALDY@aol.com>]

The announcement of the discovery of _Rahona ostromi_ coincided
with my receipt of an article from the Calgary Herald (1-24-98), sent
to me by good friend, novelist and Dino List-member Judy Horan.  It is
entitled "Feathers Bolster Notion Birds Came from Dinosaurs" and 
quotes Phil Currie extensively on his views about feathered dinosaurs.

Reporter Mark Lowey talked to Dr. Currie a week after his return from
China.  "...his detailed examinations of the new species found that
both had the same kind of downy, feather-like covering on their
bodies."

"Currie said biochemical tests have begun--initially on some of the
1000 fossilized birds found at the same site--to conclusively 
demonstrate the shared ancestry between birds and dinosaurs."

On the appearance of feathers:
"Proto-feathers were not used for flight, but probably to keep small
meat-eating dinosaurs warm, Currie explained."

On the supposed crocodile-like liver:
"The fossil was split in two halves when it was discovered. Currie,
the only Western scientist to examine both halves of the actual
fossil, said a colored stain--which critics believed to be the
animal's liver--appears to be only a break in the sediment where
the specimen was glued back together."

He also said about the feathers being internal structures, that 
the line was "just another break in the sediment."

On the supposed fibrous frill:
"..Currie's examination found the dinosaur's skull is actually rotated,
so the supposed frill doesn't run down the middle of the animal's
head and back." ...  "Moreover, the same feather-like structures
are present around the hip, ribs, legs and side of the skull."

I would presume that the statements are merely foreshadowing
of what is to come in Dr. Currie's speech at DinoFest.  

Mary
mkirkaldy@aol.com







 WASHINGTON (AP) - The fossil of a raven-sized bird with dinosaur-like 
> features has been unearthed in Madagascar from a rock formation deposited 
> more than 65 million years ago, researchers report.
>  
>  The fossils, of a type never before seen, include wing bones of a bird, but
> also a long tail and ``a huge, sickle-shaped killing claw'' that resemble 
> such features in meat-eating theropod dinosaurs, said Catherine A. Forster
of 
> the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Medicine.
>  
>  ``This animal gives powerful new evidence to support the theory that birds 
> descended from dinosaurs,'' Forster said Tuesday. She said the fossil may be
`
> `the strongest last nails in the coffin'' for those who doubt that birds 
> evolved from dinosaurs.
>  
>  A report on the study by Forster and her colleagues will be published on 
> Friday in the journal Science.
>  
>  Forster said the new bird species has been named Rahona ostromi, which 
> translates from the native Madagascar language to mean ``Ostrom's menace
from 
> the clouds.'' A scientist named John Ostrom was an earlier proponent of the 
> idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs.
>  
>  The bird fossil was found in a rock quarry among a number of other
dinosaur-
> era fossils on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar off the east coast of 
> Africa.
>  
>  Among the fossils, said Forster, were the bones of more advanced birds that
> lived during the same time and at the same place as Rahona.
>  
>  She said that Rahona was much more primitive, closely resembling 
> Archaeopteryx, an animal that lived 150 million years ago and is the
earliest 
> known true bird.
>  
>  ``Rahona was at the base of the bird family tree, right next to 
> Archaeopteryx,'' said Forster. ``It had a feathered wing plus many bird 
> features in his hips and legs, including a perched foot.''
>  
>  But Rahona also had that big killing claw on the second digit of its feet. 
> Such a claw is also found on fossils for dinosaurs like the velociraptor, a 
> meat eater that walked on his hind legs and attacked with his claw and a 
> mouth full of teeth. Such animals were depicted in a particularly menacing 
> way in the ``Jurassic Park'' duo of films.
>  
>  Forster said that the Rahona fossil deposit does not include the head, but 
> she assumes, because of the killing claw, that the bird was a meat eater.
>  
>  The bird had a wing span of at least 2 feet, she said, and there was bumps 
> along the side of one wing bone that are seen in the bones of modern birds. 
> Forster said these bumps are where feathers grow, suggesting that the Rahona
> had a wide, feathered wingspan.
>  
>  AP-NY-03-17-98 2036EST