Re: T-Tip

[dbensen <dbensen@gotnet.net>]

>>The first point was something I never heard of. Could you tell me, where you
got it from? <<

It's fairly well accepted that Compsognathus had three fingers (for instance, 
How
Many Fingers did Compsognathus Have? by Tracy L. Ford in the Februrary/March 
1999
issue of Prehistoric Times is probably the most relevant article I've read on 
the
subject, I'm sure it's been discussed in more prestigious publications.)  The
fossilized hand of Compsognathus is so badly preserved that it is impossible to
tell by looking at it, how many fingers it had.  Since Sinosauropteryx is 
closely
related to Compsognathus, and since Sinosaruopteryx definitely had three 
fingers,
it's safe to assume that Compsognathus did as well.

>>By the way, I don't believe that a taxonomic group like
Coelurosauria only exists. You cannot put a group of animals into one taxonomic
group, just because they're small.<<

I agree there.  All taxonomy beyond the species level is completely arbitrary.  
In
prehistoric organisms, _all_ taxonomy is arbitrary because we have no way of
knowing if two individuals could breed and produce viable offspring (the usual 
way
of telling if two individuals are of different species).  We lump them into 
groups
because we are humans, and categorization is something we do.

>>That's one of the evolutionary problems, baryonichines had in fighting against
corcodiles for a ecological niche. The crocodiles were adapted much better than
the baryonichines that just hadn't got enough time to adapt better to the
water-living life-style. <<

How could baryonichines get into the water in the first place if the crocodiles
were already there?  Such creatures could only evolve in the absence of
competition.  The similarity of the heads of crocodiles and baryonichines is a 
case
of convergence, but the rest of the body is completely un-crocodile like (that's
been said before).  You could not make the case that herons live like crocodiles
because their head shapes are similar.  Baryonichines were not only worse at
swimming than crocodiles, they were _much_ worse.  In the water, there would be 
no
competition.  I think that the idea of Baryonyx as a bear is a pretty good one. 
 It
was a land carnivore that was adapted for catching fish, like a heron.

Dan