Re: Pteros might be dinos?!? Oh no ...

[Tim Williams <tijawi@yahoo.com>]

B tH <soylentgreenistrex@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water . . . 


I was throwing a cat among the pterodactyls with this one.  No, I don't 
*really* think that pterosaurs are saurischians.  (Although the skull of the 
Late Triassic pterosaur _Raeticodactylus_ is weirdly theropod-like...)  


Considering all the unexpected discoveries that have been made over the past 20 
years, a saurischian ancestry for pterosaurs would not be THAT weird.  After 
all, we have four-winged dromaeosaurs (microraptorines); an oviraptorid as 
large as a sauropod (_Gigantoraptor_); a fuzzy-coated heterodontosaur 
(_Tianyulong_); an ancestral mini-tyrannosaur with _T. rex_-like proportions 
(_Raptorex_); an undersized, short-necked sauropod (_Brachytrachelopan); a 
long-necked stegosaur (_Miragaia_); a sauropod with a hadrosaur-like dental 
battery (_Nigersaurus_); a toothless, plant-eating ceratosaur (_Limusaurus); 
spiny-tailed _Psittacosaurus_; and many, many more.  If any of these are 
possible, why couldn't basal saurischians take to the air and become pterosaurs?


Cheers (and with apologies to _Scleromochlus_).

Tim