Protoavis (was Re: solnhofen)

["Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Dinogeorge wrote:

(On _Protoavis_...)

> It is absolutely amazing how all these animals came to be jumbled >together 
> in
> the same small concretion, how no elements of any of these animals was
> duplicated in any of the other animals present in the concretion,

One could (for argument's sake) entertain the notion that some of Dr 
Chatterjee's interpretations of the identity of certain _Protoavis_ elements 
may differ from the proposed identity of these same elements when they have 
been examined by other workers.

After all, most of the _Protoavis_ elements are rather/very poorly 
preserved.  Maybe the alleged sternum of _Protoavis_ is really the smushed 
jawbone of some aquatic tetrapod (for example).  (Remember that "squamosal" 
of _Zuniceratops_ ...?)

So, perhaps not so *amazing* after all...

> and how
> none of these animals has yet been found anywhere else in the Dockum.

Again, maybe they have been and no one has realized it yet (or at least 
published on it...)

Come to think of it, hasn't drepanosaurid material been described from 
somewhere else in the Dockum Formation/Group.  If not, I know that 
drepanosaurids have been described from roughly contemporary horizons 
elsewhere in North America.

I'll stop here.


Tim


------------------------------------------------------------

Timothy J. Williams

USDA/ARS Researcher
Agronomy Hall
Iowa State University
Ames IA 50014

Phone: 515 294 9233
Fax:   515 294 3163

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