Re: Feathered tyrannosauroids; it's delightful, it's delicious...

[Ken Carpenter <KCarpenter@dmns.org>]

Like the teacher said in grade school, "you have to have enough to share"

>>> Phil Bigelow <bigelowp@juno.com> 06/Oct/04 >>>
I'm celebrating the news by baking a chicken and new potatoes, with
steamed broccoli and sauteed mushrooms, served with a brisk (yet
unobtrusive) Zinfandel.  Since this is clearly a special occasion,  I
might even consider cleaning and plucking the chicken before serving. 

<pb>
--
"My wife likes to talk during sex.  One time, she called me from a motel"
- Rodney Dangerfield (1922  - 2004)



On Wed, 06 Oct 2004 14:32:46 -0400 "Thomas R. Holtz, Jr."
<tholtz@geol.umd.edu> writes:
> ...it's Dilong paradoxus!
> 
> XU, X., M.A. NORELL, X. KUANG, X. WANG, Q. ZHAO & C. JIA. 2004. 
> Basal
> tyrannosauroids from China and evidence for protofeathers in
> tyrannosauroids. Nature 431:680-684.
> 
> Birds? Pah! Stump-tailed, swelled-headed flying mutants.
> 
> Spinosaurids? Crocodile-wannabes with fish on their breath.
> 
> Dromaeosaurids? Early K has beens who hung around far after they 
> were
> fashionable.
> 
> This paper is about REAL theropods.
> 
> Namely, Dilong paradoxus (the paradoxical Imperial Dragon), the 
> most
> complete basal tyrannosauroid yet known, from the Yixian of 
> Liaoning. Four
> specimens are known (one of which may prove to be from a second 
> species),
> including a wonderfully complete skull. Adult length estimated at 
> 1.6 m.
> 
> Oh, yeah, and there are protofeathers on it.
> 
> Dilong's anatomy includes:
> Fully D-shaped premaxillary teeth, comparable in size & shape to the 
> (nearly
> contemporaneous) Tetori Group tyrannosauroid tooth.
> Nasals fused even in juveniles.
> Robust, pneumatic lacrimal, and pneumatic jugal.
> Reduced prefrontal.
> Small but well-defined saggital crest, and well-developed transverse 
> nuchal
> crest.
> Pneumatic quadrate.
> Highly pneumaticized basicranium, with deep basisphenoid recess.
> Distal end of scapula greatly expanded relative to shaft.
> Three fingered manus, with a very slender metacarpal III.
> Extremely large pubic boot.
> Non-arctometatarsalian pes.
> 
> In other words, not terribly different to what I've been predicting 
> for the
> last 15 years (except for the last one, except that for the last 
> four years
> or so I've advocated a non-arctometatarsalian ancestry of 
> tyrannosauroids).
> 
> Obviously, I'm VERY VERY happy about this little guy.
> 
> More later.
> 
>         Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
>         Vertebrate Paleontologist
> Department of Geology        Director, Earth, Life & Time 
> Program
> University of Maryland        College Park Scholars
>     Mailing Address:
>         Building 237, Room 1117
>         College Park, MD  20742
> 
> http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/ 
> http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite 
> Phone:    301-405-4084    Email:    tholtz@geol.umd.edu 
> Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661    Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796
> 
> 
> 



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