RE: Feathered dinos

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> NJPharris@aol.com
> Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 1999 4:39 PM
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: Re: Feathered dinos
>
>
> In a message dated 10/27/99 1:11:36 PM Pacific Daylight Time, Dinogeorge
> writes:
>
> > Why is it that any fossil that doesn't fit the cladogram/theory
> of the day
> > is called a chimera? Not to say Archaeoraptor is or isn't one,
> just that
> this
> > particular excuse is getting a little overworked (Protoavis, Avimimus,
> > Rahonavis, etc.).
>
> Well, _Rahonavis_ does make things *a little* uncomfortable for
> the cladists,
> but I've never heard anyone but the Martin/Rubenites call it a chimaera.

Other way round: _Rahonavis_ fits happily cladistically as a basal bird,
whereas Martin & the Feducciaries are calling it (the News item in the same
issue of Science where it was published, at the SICB conference and
elsewhere) a chimera: they claim the forelimb material does not belong to
the rest of the animal.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796