Re: New Bird Fossils

[Jay <sappororaptor@yahoo.com>]

I'm quite lost here. 
How is the discovery of a pterosaur relevant to the so called 'missing link' 
issue between birds
and non-avian dinosaurs??
Actually, the story seems comical after reading it, but is there an issue here, 
where the blatant
inaccuracy of a newspaper story miseducates the public?


--- bh480@scn.org wrote:
 
> February 21, 2006]            
> MAN MAY HAVE FOUND `MISSING LINK' BETWEEN DINOSAURS AND 
> BIRDS 
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/02/21/1391468.htm
> (New Zealand Press Association Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
> Wellington, Feb 21 NZPA - A Napier amateur palaeontologist 
> has found a rare fossil he believes could prove to be one 
> of the missing links between dinosaurs and birds.
> 
> Trevor Crabtree, who has previously uncovered many 
> fossilised remains in the Napier/Wairoa region, estimates 
> his latest find -- going by the skin and feather quills -- 
> lived 130 million years ago, which dates it to the 
> Jurassic period.
> 
> ``By the tail alone, it can be seen it is from the 
> pteredon family,'' he told Hawke's Bay Today.
> 
> ``Pteredons were flying reptiles, but this one has the 
> wings of a bird.''
> 
> He said the only record that he could locate of a similar 
> find linking flying reptiles and birds was a possible 
> discovery in China.
> 
> ``The problem is that the evolutionary lines are too 
> diverse and there are too many gaps in the fossil records.
> 
> ``The connecting links have still to be discovered.''
> 
> Mr Crabtree's find has been scanned and an X-ray sent to 
> Auckland in an attempt to further unlock its secrets.
> 
> Photos have also been e-mailed to palaeontologists 
> throughout the world to establish whether anything similar 
> has been found.
> 
> 
> 


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