Re: Archaeopteryx leg feathers

[Dino Guy Ralph <ralph.miller@alumni.usc.edu>]

"Robert J. Schenck" <nygdan@yahoo.com>
refers to

> http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99995013
>
He quotes a questionable statement he disagrees with:
> "a new study of Archaeopteryx [...] reveals it
> had long feathers on its back and legs, as well
> as on its wings."
>
> the citation is Comptes Rendus Palevol, vol 3, p
> 99
>
> i have no access to this journal.

  The paper, "Body plumage in _Archaeopteryx_: a review, and new information
from the Berlin specimen," is in fact available as a PDF at
http://www.elsevier.fr/html/news/Christiansen.pdf, which is also accessible
as the second listing under "Weblinks" on the cited _New Scientist_ article
web page.

The paper states that the Berlin specimen of _Archaeopteryx_ sported leg
feathers which were pennaceous in nature, but were "considerably smaller
than the flight feathers."  The authors, Christiansen and Bonde, raise the
possibility that the common ancestor of _Archaeopteryx_ and _Microraptor_
may have itself been a "tetrapteryx," but they concede that the evidence at
present does not support a firm conclusion either way.  Read the paper.
--------
"Dino Guy" Ralph W. Miller III
Docent at the California Academy of Sciences
proud member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology