Re: Longipteryx chaoyangensis (Aves, Enantiornithes?)

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

> <...are you sure that is an enantiornithine and not an non-avian
> maniraptoran? As you say those feathers are very un-avian

Might more prep work (removal of half a millimeter of matrix or so) reveal
wing feathers?

Is it possible that the specimen died during moulting?

> and look very like those on the recently
> discovered Sinic dromeosaur.

The body feathers of Liáoníng birds all look like that, AFAIK...

> I seem to see a dromeosaur like furcula there or I
> am dreaming.>

That's simply the plesiomorphy, like in *Archaeopteryx* and
confuciusornithids, AFAIK.