RE: Epidexipteryx

[evelyn sobielski <koreke77@yahoo.de>]

> There's _Boluochia_ of Early Cretaceous (Barremian)
> age, which had a hooked beak and so might have been
> predatory.

Not more than a small corvid probably, for simple reasons of size. In any case, 
the thing to look out is not the occasional oddball (which would not surprise 
me, in fact IIRC one of this summer's enantis makes a reasonable candidate), 
but a more diverse lineage. And fragmentary or not, Dyke's(?) upcoming study 
suggests that the fossil record of enantis ought to be complete enough to infer 
such things with not too shabby certainty. Also, the Late K record is not far 
more complete, but there we *do* have indications of a larger diversity of 
avian carnivores, and even of dedicated vertebrate-eaters.

Eike