Re: Birdosaurs

[Dinogeorge <Dinogeorge@aol.com>]

In a message dated 98-03-26 02:35:34 EST, srladd.dino@juno.com writes:

<< 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. >>

Indeed, there may have been several different kinds of wings (digital
formulae: four digits, three middle digits, first three digits, two digits,
maybe as few as one) among the early birds, only one of which remained by the
Cenozoic. But there aren't enough specimens available to give us more than a
vague idea of what's going on. You can bet that there were hundreds, maybe
even thousands of species of dinobirds extant at any particular time during
the Mesozoic. We only see a very, very small fraction of them in the fossil
record.