Re: Revising Hou et al, 96 (very very long)

["Mickey Mortimer" <Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com>]

Tim Williams wrote-

> > That's how I feel about the characters shared by Sinornithosaurus and
> > dromaeosaurids (T-shaped quadratojugal, elongated distal caudal
> > chevrons and prezygopophyses and some others).
>
> And secondarily lost in birds, including basal forms (like
_Archaeopteryx_)?
> Why would birds lose a stiffened tail so early in their evolution?

Yup.  Why would birds lose the mid-dorsal ischial process?  Who knows?  Why
not invoke Paul's idea that structures are easier to lose soon after they
evolve?

> > That's Lourinhanosaurus.  Syntarsus, Poekilopleuron and those new
> > ornithomimids have them too.
>
> Got a ref for _Syntarsus_ gastroliths?

Matora pers. comm. to Whittle and Everhart (1989), in Whittle and Everhart's
2000 gastrolith paper in the Dinosaurs of New Mexico volume.

Mickey Mortimer