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Hi all. I haven't been on the list for a
while, so I have several questions and issues I want to bring up, some relating
to my web site:
-What is the most precise (and accurate)
estimate that exists for the age of the K/T boundary?
-It has always struck me
that cladistic analyses, like those using PAUP, were somewhat biased. I
could be wrong, but it just seems to me that someone doing one of these
analyses, though attempting to be neutral, would end up selecting characters
that favoured his or her particular view. What would
be nice would be if we could directly scan the fossils, using 3D imaging
technology, and get the computer to analyze what the fossils actually look like
and then formulate its own characters and cladogram. How reasonable (or
necessary) is this?
-Is there such a creature as
_Barasuchas_? I have seen it mentioned in various Jurassic Park video
games (and yes, I know they aren't the most reliable source). If it does
exist, what *is* it?
-Given the idea that _T. rex_ is descended
from feathered stock (which several believe), and the idea that _T. rex_ itself
may have been feathered as a baby (which some believe), how likely is the idea
that it retained some of those feathers into adulthood? I mean, obviously
it wouldn't have had a full insulatory coat, but how about for display?
After all, it has all those neat hornlets and other cranial ornaments. I
can just imagine tufts of feathers to accentuate all those neat bumps.
Comments?
-Did I hear a rumor at some point of skin impressions from
_Nanotyrannus_? Anyone have any details?
-Finally, are there any skin impressions (or what were once
thought to be skin impressions), or evidence for skin texture (or what was once
thought to be evidence for skin texture), for any small or medium-sized
non-ornithothoracean dinosaurs other than those mentioned in my web site's
feather essay (http://www.cyberus.ca/~sharding/grant/essay/feather.htm)?
Thank you so much.
Best wishes,
-Grant
--
Grant Harding High school student/amateur paleontologist granth@cyberus.ca Visit Grant Harding's Dinosaur Destination at http://www.cyberus.ca/~sharding/grant/ "I just flew in from Beipiao, and boy are my semi-lunate carpals tired." |