Re: velociraptor rib prongs

["Mickey Mortimer" <Mickey_Mortimer11@msn.com>]

Ken Kinman wrote-

>      Confuciusornis has uncinate processes and enantiornithines don't???
> That is a little surprising.
>      Do all "Saururan" (spelling?) birds lack uncinate processes?  I don't
> remember if Larry Martin (et al.) considers Confuciusornis as ornithuran
or
> "saururan".

Never said that.  As you can read here-
http://www.cmnh.org/fun/dinosaur-archive/2001May/msg00288.html all
enantiornithines barring two are too poorly preserved to say for certain.
Liaoxiornis lacks them, but is juvenile, so it could be ontogenetic.
Iberomesornis is the only specimen with a well-preserved rib cage and no
evidence of ossified uncinates.  It's our best evidence so far that
enantiornithines lack them, although I think more specimens would be
preferrable, as otherwise fairly complete specimens in families that we know
had uncinates lack them.  Archaeopteryx, confuciusornithids, Jibeinia and
enantiornithines have all been referred to the Sauriurae (cringe).  I'm sure
that Longipteryx and Protopteryx would also be referred to it as both were
referred to the Enantiornithes.  The describers of the former were not
precise when indicating whether they thought the Sauriurae existed, while
the latter was accompanied by a cladistic analysis, so they couldn't
possibly support the clade :-) .  Sauriurae is just non-ornithurine Aves.
Archaeopteryx, Protopteryx and possibly Iberomesornis lack uncinates,
confuciusornithids, Longipteryx and ornithurines have them.

Mickey Mortimer