Lizard Frills and Chimeras

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

I've had some brief e-mail conversations with Alan Feduccia in regard to
his views on recent dino bird finds. I'll be talking to Cathy Forster on
Monday, and Luis Chiappe when he returns from Argentina. I'm wondering
what people here think...

I asked Feduccia about Sinosauropteryx; he stated that the fibers along
the fossil's spin are not feathers, but collegen fibers that supported a
frill. I've heard him make this claim before, altho he tells me that "it
will all come out soon." Is there any conclusive evidence as to the
nature of these "fibers?" Not having access to the fossil myself, I can
only go by the rather small pictures I've seen (the best was in
Scientific American a few months back). If anyone has a large,
high-quality picture, I'd love to see it.

Feduccia also claims that Rahona ostromi is a "chimera" formed from two
fossils. He tells me that "Varona" (I don't know the name) found a
wingless bird in the same deposit, suggesting that the missing parts were
mistakenly identified as part of Rahona. I know something of how deposits
are laid down, and I wonder how close these two specimens were in time
and space.

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

_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]