RE: Revising Hou et al, 96

["Williams, Tim" <TiJaWi@agron.iastate.edu>]

David Marjanovic wrote:

> and the quill knobs that, it seems, appear somewhere in Euornithes and 
> disappear in tinamous and *Piksi* 

As the _Piksi_ paper points out, flamingos (Phoenicopteriformes) also lack
quill knobs (papillae remigalis ventralis) along the ulna.  

> Erm... err... maybe functional, related to the secondarily rather short
> legs of dromaeosaurids?

Are you so sure the stocky legs of dromies are secondary?  Maybe they (like
oviraptorids) retain the ancestral proportions of basal coelurosaurs, and
the long sprinting legs of ornithomimosaurs, troodontids, tyrannosaurids,
alvarezsaurids, elmisaurids etc are derived.

> Actually I wonder why Archie is still hailed as their closest relative 
> by so many people.

The foot shows a few birdy features (i.e. the hallux), and so does the skull
(though, as you imply, many of those are in the eye of the beholder).  And
then there's the feathers - the reason why _Archaeopteryx_ has always been
considered a bird (except by a certain Mr Wagner).



Tim



------------------------------------------------------------ 

Timothy J. Williams 

USDA-ARS Researcher 
Agronomy Hall 
Iowa State University 
Ames IA 50014 

Phone: 515 294 9233 
Fax:   515 294 3163