RE: Bambiraptor complete!

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

Rutger Jansma wrote:

>And look at Archaeopteryx for example, it had these big feathers hanging
>from it's forelimbs and it seems to survived very well at the isolated
>islands that made up Europe in the Jurassic. 

The counter-argument is that _Archaeopteryx_ *did not* use its clawed hands
for predation, but for another (non-predatory purpose).  The suggestions
I've seen include: (a) climbing trees, (b) clutching tree branches at the
end of a flight, and (c) preening.

I would agree with (a) and (c) as being possible functions of
_Archaeopteryx_'s hands *alongside* their ancestral function in grasping
prey.  (b) assumes that _Archaeopteryx_ was exclusively arboreal, and so I
have a real problem with it.

>We have these big specimens
>to prove it, like the big Solnhofen specimen (or was this the type of >that
other genus that has supposedly lived alongside A.?). 

I don't believe _Wellnhoferia grandis_ is a valid genus - just a large
specimen of _A. lithographica_.  Elzanowski is of the opinion that multiple
archaeopterygid species inhabited the Solnhofen.

>There are these
>rooster fights, in which, as the name says, two roosters try to peck the
>hell out of each other, using their beak, as well as trying to "punch"
>their opponent with their wings. 

All perfectly disgusting; cockfighting is also thoroughly illegal (at least
in the U.S. and Australia).  



Tim