Re: A therizinosauroid dinosaur with integumentary structures from China

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/26/99 9:37:23 PM EST, gbabcock@best.com writes:

<< Our analysis suggests that several
 specialized therizinosauroid characters, such as the Sauropodomorpha-like
 tetradactyl pes, evolved independently within this group.  Most 
interestingly,
 this new dinosaur has integumentary filaments as in _Sinosauropteryx_.  This
 indicates that such feather-like structures may have a broad distribution 
among
 non-avian theropods >>

Interesting indeed. But my analysis is rather different, of course. 
Integumentary filaments, sometimes accompanied by osteoderms, are >primitive 
for dinosaurs< (not just some advanced subgroup of theropods), and their 
"broad distribution" in Dinosauria (not just Theropoda) accounts for their 
appearance in those phytodinosaurian segnosaurs. One of these days there will 
be some interesting news about a certain group of small ornithischian 
dinosaurs, but I really am permitted to say no more at this time.