Re: "Feathery fossil shows birds aren't dinosaurs"

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/23/00 8:29:26 AM EST, tholtz@geol.umd.edu writes:

<< Archosauromorphs have extra cervical vertebrae over the ancestral diapsid
 condition of six: most archosauromorphs have at least 8 cervicals, and some
 even more.  _Longisquama_ has the primitive six.  George, you're not a fan
 of reversals.  So, did every group from trilophosaurids to rhynchosaurs to
 choristoderes to pseudosuchians to pterosaurs to phytodinosaurs (I'll be
 generous here) to "theropodomorphs" more advanced than _Longisquama_
 indepedantly evolve 8 or more cervicals?  All this just so you can keep
 _Longisquama_ close to the base of theropods? >>

I don't think you can get an accurate count of the cervical vertebrae in the 
specimen, because the skull seems to be pushed over the first few cervicals 
and may be hiding one or more of them. However, you've seen better shots of 
the specimen than I have.