Re: Birds of Russia and Mongolia

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

Thanks!

> I meant to out that if taken by itself, the subequal lateral and medial
> condyles of Boluochia would suggest it is ornithurine.  However, other
> characters suggest it is enantiornithine.  This shows that caution is
needed
> when assigning taxa to a group based on one trait alone.

> There's an entire chapter devoted to standardizing Russian and Mongolian
> names.  That's how they spell it.

> One dentary tooth has been found.  It's nearly conical, with a constricted
> base.  I doubt it is serrated.

This could explain why *Boluochia* evolved a raptor-like beak in the first
place, which I wouldn't have expected in a toothed animal.

> Nope.  Like I said, hesperornithiforms are too close to neornithines for
me
> to examine them yet.  You'll just have to look at the characters I listed
> and find out for yourself if they are valid hesperornithiform
> synapomorphies.