RE: Bambiraptor complete!

["Tracy L. Ford" <dino.hunter@home.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
Williams, Tim
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2002 12:34 PM
To: 'dinosaur@usc.edu'
Subject: RE: Bambiraptor complete!

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.<<

But it has those nice long, pointed claws...

Ah, the things I know....the things that are coming...heh, heh, heh...

>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.<<

And why not? There are different types of gulls and terns in the same area.
Also, not all the Solnhofen specimens come from the same beds.



Tracy L. Ford
P. O. Box 1171
Poway Ca  92074