RE: Kurochkin 2006 critique

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Mickey Mortimer wrote:

> Kurochkin's latest (2006) paper is an interesting entry into the BAND camp.

Alas, "BAND camp" is not as much fun as Alyson Hannigan makes it sound.  :-(

And another time at BAND camp...

> Kurochkin claims "Late Triassic Protoavis is a headache for the proponents 
> of the dinosaurian hypothesis of the origin of birds. [snip] This is 
> probably the main reason why the majority of
> supporters of sister relationships between birds and theropods omit 
> Protoavis from their considerations."  No, the main reason is that the 
> remains are identical to coelophysoid and pterosauromorph (Atanassov, 2002) 
> elements, while the cervicals are similar to drepanosaurids'.

Kurochkin's comment that paleontologists omit _Protoavis_ from their 
analyses because it is inconvenient to their hypothesis is disingenuous.  It 
is unfortunate that these kind of comments pop up in BAND publications.  If 
nothing else, it just sounds bad, and reflects poorly on the author.

As an addendum to Mickey's critique, Atanassov named two new taxa in his 
dissertation as basal pterosauromorphs, one provisional.  Both are mentioned 
here...

http://archosauria.org/pterosauria/taxonomy/species.pdf

Neither species has yet to receive an official scientific description.  
Material referrable to these 'species' has been found in the same strata 
that yielded the _Protoavis_ hypodigm.  Drepanosaurid material has been 
found here too.

Cheers

Tim

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