Re: New alvarezsaurid

[Dinogeorge <Dinogeorge@aol.com>]

In a message dated 98-03-23 11:08:41 EST, m_troutman@hotmail.com writes:

<< Theropods, and 
 espcially the "flightless" ones still have mobile wrists which are 
 incongruent with forelimb function as " prey holders ".  >>

Of course they had mobile wrists, because the wings of their ancestral forms
retained considerable grasping ability. Having a mobile wrist (and even an
opposable manual digit I) is not at all incongruous with "prey holding"! The
ancestral forms were nowhere near as highly adapted fliers as are modern
birds, so their flightless cursorial descendants retained considerably more of
the non-flying forelimb functions than did, for example, flightless
maniraptorans or more modern flightless forms.