Re: Feduccia et al. (2005) Critique

[Daniel Selvidge <dansel72020@yahoo.com>]

Just wanted to ask about the specimen refferenced
below:

>This Psittacosaurus is pretty amazing.  A complete
>specimen with filaments preserved inside the ribs. 
>Often preserved crossing one another, they do 
>form herringbone patterns sometimes.  They claim some
>filaments appear beaded and curved, which occurs in
>degraded collagen. 

Do we have to wait for their published work on the
creature or are there anymore references to it
available.  I haven't been following things recently
and I'm a bit out of the loop on the new discoveries.
Furthermore, the fibers are within the ribs? Couldn,t
that leave a lot of possibilities open.  But ya know,
I do like Luis Rey's version of the fluffy little
psittacosaurs.  Things are just so darn cute and
soft(add a baby talk emphasis to the last scentence
there:)


>Are these feathers?  
>No, as we have the very well preserved quilled
>specimen that indicates 
>psittacosaurs were fully scaled, including over the
>rib region.  Could this be a feathered juvenile of a
>scaled adult?  It is half the size of the 
>quilled specimen (and doesn't preserve quills, though
>this could be taphonomic).  So I can't dismiss that
>possibility. 

Wonder if it could be a sort of juvenile quilling, and
not just soft down?  Oh well, I have no idea. 
Pictures would definitely help here.

thanks for the time

Dan S.
---------------------------------------
"insert quote here" to tired to do it myself;)


                
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