Re: Not so new papers

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

> "Applying the Liliensternus and Dilophosaurus proportions of whole body
> length to foot length, to AC 1/7 footprint size, the trackmaker's length
can
> be estimated as approximately 5 m."
>
> I wonder if this down-like body covering may have been seasonal.  Maybe
> theropods (especially, but not exclusively, the big ones) shed their
"fuzz"
> in the spring and sprouted it again as winter approaches.

Spring? Winter? In the Early Jurassic? At ~ 25° latitude? Would be a
plausible idea, but under these circumstances...

> This might
> explain its apparent absence in the Bavarian _Compsognathus_ and its
> presence in _Sinosauropteryx_ of Liaoning.

No one knows whether _Compsognathus_ had or had not feathers. The stone
around the Bavarian specimen has been *POLISHED* so that lithographies of
the fossil could be made. B-( :.-( Eventual ( = highly probable) impressions
of protofeathers in that limestone would have been very faint, I think. I'll
dig up the ref tomorrow.

> By the way, thanks for the reference David.

=8-)