Re: Feathered Dinosaur Specimen

["T. Mike Keesey" <tmk@dinosauricon.com>]

On Tue, 24 Apr 2001, Mickey_Mortimer wrote:

> First of all, I'd like to say I think it was improper of Fred to
> reveal the website before embargo, even if he did discover it by
> himself.  Putting that behind us for the moment however, I'd like to
> say WOO-HOO!  Thanks Fred!  Looks like there will be a Details on...
> describing a certain feathered deinonychosaur in the near future.
> Perfectly preserved remiges, retrices, plumage, elongate
> deinonychosaur-style chevrons and prezygopophyses......
> Can't....wait....for....paper.

A deinonychosaur with no enlarged second pedal unguals? Could be a very
basal one, then, and that could support your placement of _Rahonavis_ as a
deinonychosaur. OTOH, maybe the deinonychosaur-style tails and second
pedal claws are a plesiomorphy for _Eumaniraptora_, and this is an avialan
which has lost the latter but not the former, or aparavian which has
developed the former, but is outside the clade that developed the latter.
It seems to have semi-wings, whatever it is, although the forelimbs are
"only" about 70% as long as the hindlimbs. Secondarily flightless
_Deinonychosauria_?

All these new finds are confusing me. I'm going to shut my yap until the
paper comes out. Can't wait for a review of paravian phylogeny
incorporating all the most recent finds (_Bambiraptor_, _Microraptor_,
etc.)

> Of course we all know it's a bird ;-)
I wonder if the serrated(?) teeth might give them pause.

It's too late to suggest names, but I think it should be called
_Sinosaurornithoides pterygolestes_, in order to further the _Sinosaurus_/
_Sinosauropteryx_/_Sinornithosaurus_/_Sinornis_/_Sinornithoides_/
_Saurornithoides_/_Saurornitholestes_ confusion :)

_____________________________________________________________________________
T. MICHAEL KEESEY
 Home Page               <http://dinosauricon.com/keesey>
  The Dinosauricon        <http://dinosauricon.com>
   personal                <keesey@bigfoot.com> --> <tmk@dinosauricon.com>
    Dinosauricon-related    <dinosaur@dinosauricon.com>
     AOL Instant Messenger   <Ric Blayze>
      ICQ                     <77314901>
       Yahoo! Messenger        <Mighty Odinn>