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TREE-CLIMBING DROMAEOSAURS
On a recent article about tree-climbing dinosaurs (Naish 2000), David
Marjanovic wrote....
> And the drawings that show Chatterjee & Palm's scansorial
> dromaeosaurs are very beautiful,
Thanks, but not sure if 'beautiful' is the word I'd use.
> just Chatterjee always illustrates his
> "protodromaeosaurs" with the head facing upwards and the tail used
> like the stiff feathers of woodpeckers. I haven't read the papers by
> Palm, however.
I've put discussion of the 'vertical clinger' model into the
_Archaeopteryx_ MS [in press] together with comparisons with
parulids, campephilin woodpeckers and pygmy parrots - Chatterjee's
and Palm's proposal that dromaeosaurids were well-suited for trunk
clinging is poorly founded. Palm's diagrams show little
dromaeosaurids climbing down tree-trunks head-first: that's why the
animals in my drawing are doing the same thing. BTW the
_Archaeopteryx_ MS is another rambling historical discussion.. it
does not include any real science.
There is apparently an old restoration of a climbing sloth-like
_Deinocheirus_, perhaps in a French publication. Has anyone seen it?
RE: the Tarsitano et al. paper, I was suprised to see Anthony Russell
as second author. So far as I know he supports theropod ancestry for
birds.
***USA: STOP LOW FREQUENCY ACOUSTIC SONAR***
DARREN NAISH
PALAEOBIOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP
School of Earth, Environmental & Physical Sciences
UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
Burnaby Building
Burnaby Road email: darren.naish@port.ac.uk
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