|
Mark Norell asked me to forward this to the
list-
All, bear with me- just a couple of comments:
First Huaxisaurus is not a dinobird. I have the specimen here on loan
in NYC and it is being worked on by one of my students and myself.
It is a fairly big animal (longer than 170 cm) with some real surprises in the
skeleton.
Second, in response to Josh Smith's comment on my feelings about the age of
the Liaoning beds. To quote from our paper.
The age of the fossil beds in western Liaoning is
debated. Certain faunal elements suggest a Late Jurassic age; radiometric
work from several sites near Sihetun has suggested conflicting dates of 124.6
mybp or 147 mybp. The age of these beds is a complex problem and probably
several ages are represented at different quarry sites. No radiometric
samples exist from the Fanzhangzi quarry (NGMC 91 site) and stratigraphic
correlations are imprecise because the Fanzhangzi quarry is over 130 kilometers
from the Sihetun site.
Much of the press took an average of this
date.
A lot more work needs to be done before the ages of
each quarry are sorted out. Personally, I could care less if these
beds are Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous, however, if anyone has any
objections to the paper
Lo, C-H. Chen, P.-J., Tsou, T.-Y., Sun, S.-S & Lee,
C.-Y. 40Ar/39Ar laser single-grain and K-Ar dating of the Yixian Formation. NE
China. in Jehol Biota (eds Chen, P-J. & Jin, F.) 328-340
(1999).
I would like to hear them.
Third- regarding the discussion about our
website. The so called leak occurred during testing. All of us
who publish in Science and Nature are very sensitive about the embargoes to the
point of not discussing other peoples work before it is appropriate. We
put up websites with color pictures as a service to professionals and
nonprofessionals- especially to give people access to good quality images when
they do not have access to the journals. We do not have to do this, and if
the community wants us to keep it up then do not abuse this
information.
Fourth- regarding the silly errors in the press release
(sickle like middle claw). These are my own fault caused by reading a low
res fax in a hotel in Shenyang last week. My crew and I returned from
China last Saturday. As far as ongoing work on the Jehol theropods-
you have'nt seen anything yet.
-- Mark A. Norell Chair, Division of Paleontology American Museum of Natural History Central Park West at 79th St. New York, New York 10024-5192 http://research.amnh.org/vertpaleo/norell.html |