Re: Dinosaur Genera List update #196

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

Original Message by Jaime A. Headden
Saturday, 28 December 2002 03:19

>   But it's not about the origin of flight. *Jeholornis* and its likely
> junior synonym *Shenzhouraptor* are, despite their bony tails, more
> "avian" in their anatomy than is *Archaeopteryx*, including the sternal,
> coracoidal, and pelvic elements. The wrist and manus design are also
> similarly far advanced than *Archaeopteryx*, a design more in kin with
> *Confuciusornis* [...]

IMHO they are more like *Rahonavis* than *Archaeopteryx*, but not necessarily 
more like Pygostylia than *A.* apart from convergences. For example they have 
a joint between coracoid and scapula, while *Sapeornis* has a suture in that 
place and *Confuciusornis* fuses them like a pterosaur.

All those divers (Taucher)... Dutch is actually more closely related to 
English than to written German, it just retains a lot more plesiomorphies 
than the highly apomorphic English, and has lost the most conspicuous 
plesiomorphies of English (w, th...) along with German. The northernmost 
dialects of German, if that's what you want to call them 
http://www.plattmaster.de, are even closer to English, as is the Frisian 
language. German in the usual sense is a paraphyletic affair. :-)