Re: Feathers Fly Worldwide.

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

On Thu, 26 Apr 2001, JAMES ARONIS wrote:

> Would it be presumptuous to assume that even all theropods were feathered? I
> am especially referring to the megafauna theropods such as Tyrannosaurs,
> etc. What about the other carnosaurs that belong to older families like the
> Allosaurs? These dinosaurs are not closely related to avian dinosaurs,
> correct?

That's why DinoGeorge said "some" theropods. AFAIK, we only have full-body
integumentary data for _Carnotaurus_ (scaly), the Liaoning _Coelurosauria_
(feathered or proto-feathered), some fossil _Aves_ (feathered) and, of
course, extant _Neornithes_ (feathered). This means that integument for
everything intermediate between _Ceratosauria_ (which includes
_Carnotaurus_) and the basalmost Liaoning coelurosaur (_Sinosauropteryx_)
is unknown. This includes basal _Tetanurae_ ("megalosaurs"),
_Spinosauria_, _Carnosauria_, and basal _Coelurosauria_ (_Gasosaurus_,
etc.). It is unclear whether certain coelurosaurian lineages (e.g.
_Tyrannosauroidea_, _Ornithomimosauria_) are within
Clade(_Sinosauropteryx_ + _Aves_) or not.

And, of course, _Carnotaurus_ could possibly be secondarily
protofeatherless (new word?), or scaly only as an adult, in which case
nearly all _Theropoda_ could have had such integument. OTOH, feathery
integument may be limited to a clade within _Coelurosauria_.

Oh, for a Liaoning carnosaur! :)

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T. MICHAEL KEESEY
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