Re: Important feathered dinosaurs

["Timothy Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Ronald Orenstein wrote:

> Of course, should such a specimen appear I would expect Feduccia
> or someone else to suggest that feathers might be basal in Archosauria and
> so their presence in both birds and dinosaurs does not establish a
> dino-bird link - so #3 would be a specimen of something like Lagosuchus
> with clear skin impressions!

I'm probably pointing out the obvious here, but some kind of hair-like 
integumentary structure may indeed be primitive for dinosaurs, if it's 
present in pterosaurs (e.g. _Sordes pilosus_).  For that reason (and 
others), it would be useful to pin down the position of the Pterosauria - as 
closer to the Dinosauria or to the Prolacertiformes (which lie a lot further 
down in the Archosauromorpha).

I wonder if anyone has compared the integumentary structures of 
_Sinosauropteryx_/_Beipaiosaurus_ with _Sordes_ - "dino-fuzz" with 
"ptero-fuzz" - yet?


Tim

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