Re: Sinusonasus, Aberratiodontus and other birds

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

> shorter tail,

Are you sure the end of the tail is preserved? To me, it looks like the tail
ends very suddenly, and could be broken and/or partly hidden in the
sediment.

> Aberratiodontus is odd.

Wise words...

> The cranial reconstruction is terrible

The shapes of the elements are terrible, but their topological relationships
are not all that bad.

> I don't see clear evidence for a postorbital,
> the structure identified as such could
> easily be a quadrate instead.

The thing you identify as a quadrate ought to be one -- if not a pterygoid.
The thing cranial to it, though, is in the right position for a postorbital,
and contacts more or less the right bones.

> The description itself is poorly written, using a lot of
> seemingly out of place technical terminology (while describing dental
> morphology and replacement), uselessly vague details and inaccurate word
> choice.  The authors could have benefited from an English-speaking
reviewer.

Who would have told them to use crown, root and constriction instead of
corona, radix and cervix dentis. Of course, the goal of describing the teeth
in such detail is ABSRD.

I can't find the tail, BTW. I wonder if it's on the counterslab (which is
not figured and may not exist).

> http://students.washington.edu/eoraptor/Pygostylia.htm#Aberratiodontuswui

You could add the peculiar heterodonty to the diagnosis.