Re: Birdosaurs

[srladd.dino@juno.com (Scott Robert Ladd)]

On Tue, 24 Mar 1998 19:01:24 +1100 Tom T <tomt@f1.net.au> writes:
>I'm going to say this, simple and short: ARE BIRDS DINOSAURS? Since I
>asked a simple question, please give me a simple answer.

Probably.

At least it's a simple answer!

As an outside observer and non-paleontologist (I'm an astronomer by
education and computer scientist by avocation), I hope I'm a
dispassionate observer of this debate.

The fossil record doesn't provide enough data from which to draw a
conclusion. I've just spent a week pouring over everything I can find on
the topic, and am leaning toward "bird are dinosaurs." Rahona ostromi,
published last Friday, provides a wonderful "missing link" between
dromaeosaurs and birds. Here we have a feathered, flying creature with
sickle claw and tail!

However... Bird existed in profusion by the time Rahona ostromi enters
the scene in the late Creatceous. Hmmm...

My belief (at the moment): Birds descend from an early therapod, and
other, related dinosaurs also developed feathers and flight. COnvergent
evolution makes a great deal of sense; if one therapod could evolve
flight, it seems reasonable that other therapods could also evolve into
bird-like beings at other times.

<Scott Robert Ladd>
send personal e-mail to: srladd@frontier.net
http://www.frontier.net/~srladd


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