Re: Dinosaurs to birds

[Stanley Friesen <sarima@ix.netcom.com>]

At 03:48 AM 1/25/99 +0000, Raymond Thaddeus C. Ancog wrote:
>Dinogeorge wrote:
>>In a message dated 1/21/99 7:03:59 PM EST, Dwight.Stewart@VLSI.com writes:
>>I don't >have< a scenario. There's not enough information about bird
>diversity
>>around the K/T boundary to formulate a scenario.
>
>Alan Feduccia did write once that avian diversity did encounter a
>bottleneck at the end of the Cretaceous only to experience a boom
>afterwards. The enantiornithines, of course, were the victims, while the
>neornithine basal stock acted as the progenitors of today's current avain
>fauna (with his shorebird-duck, shorebird-flamingo and shorebird-ibis
>mosaic forms).

Yes, he did say that.  Unfortunately, he based this statement on his
specific handling of the identification of fragmentary avian (and
avian-like) remains.  Other identifications of these remains suggest other
interpretations.  And even *with* the fragmentary remains, in no epoch of
the Cretaceous more than a fraction of the diversity of birds that must
have been living then known from fossils.

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May the peace of God be with you.         sarima@ix.netcom.com