Rahona ostromi

[PESELYG@APSU01.APSU.EDU]

There's another story about Rahona ostromi on Fox News Wire, posted
at 1:20 ET March 19, 1998, which quotes a doubter, Larry Martin of
the University of Kansas, who maintains that it isn't a bird:
"What they've got there is the rear end of a fairly typical
dinosaur.  The only thing that makes it unique is that it has a
fairly typical bird wing."  He said that because parts of the wing
were found apart from the other bones, the remains might actually
be a composite of a dinosaur and a bird.  "It really looks like
they have a mixture of animals.  It turns out too good to be true."

But David Krause of SUNY Stony Brook, who led the dig which uncovered
the fossils, says that most of the wing was discovered mixed in with
the other remains.  "There is always that problem with fossils.  But
the ulna and scapula (bones found in the wing) were found right on
top."  He added that the radius, another bone in the wing, had only
drifted a foot away and that no other bird fossils were located
within four yards of Rahona.

George Pesely, Dept. of History, Austin Peay State Univ., Clarksville TN
peselyg@apsu01.apsu.edu          http://www.apsu.edu/~peselyg

Forgot to include the title of the story as posted:  "Creature's
claw boosts Dinosaur-Bird Theory"