New dope on ratites

[John Bois <jbois@umd5.umd.edu>]

As earlier noted (a big thanks), this website has the abstracts from NAPC
2001 June 26 - July 1 Berkeley, California
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/napc/mainabs.html
This one might be of interest to ratite origins folk.
(5/23/01)
HETEROCHRONY SUGGESTS MULTIPLE FLIGHT LOSS EVENTS IN THE RATITES
MARSHALL, Cynthia L., Museum of the Rockies, Montana State University, Bozeman, 
MT, USA
Studied wing development/loss in ratite embryos.  Finds very different sequence 
in emus vs. ostriches.
Proposes that emus and clan were small birds that became big, and
that ostriches were large fliers.  No indication (from abstract,
anyway) of when this flight loss may have happened.  Did ostriches become
flightless in the Miocene?  Is molecular evidence of close relationship of
all ratites now to be mistrusted?  Dunno.