Re: New alvarezsaurid

["Jaime Headden" <jaemei@hotmail.com>]

<Imagine the arboreal, flying ancestral forms as having most if not all 
of the different avian characters that have been noted in "theropods," 
then >losing< some of them--randomly (particularly forelimb/pectoral 
characters, as the wings vestigialize)--in each different lineage of 
their ground-dwelling descendants. It would create a bunch of lineages, 
each sporting its own distinct random selection of avian features, some 
modified from subsequent evolution, some not so modified. This is what 
is seen in the fossil record of
"theropods.">

Yes, but which line led to modern birds, to ornithurines, to 
enantiornithines, or what have you? or were these all plays at getting 
the characters for true birds, yet missed their mark, or were 
neornithines just lucky and got the label "birds" we use today and 
*Hesperornis* didn't get the full qualification?

Jaime A. Headden



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