RE: Microraptor hanqingi, new species from China.

[Anthony Docimo <keenir@hotmail.com>]

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> Date: Fri, 25 May 2012 12:18:34 +1000
> From: tijawi@gmail.com
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: Re: Microraptor hanqingi, new species from China.
>
> Jason Brougham <jaseb@amnh.org> wrote:
>

> > I am troubled that you dismiss any comparison between the function of basal 
> > paravians and modern birds because the former have long necks and legs.
>
>
> Again, that's not actually what I said. I was speaking to the overall
> bauplan. Paravians like _Archaeopteryx_ or _Microraptor_ were
> cursors; the proportions and ranges of motion at the joints reflect
> that.

 and our own ancestors had arboreal bauplans...they didn't drop out of the 
trees with the feet of Moderns; like Paravians, our ancestors initially had to 
make do with the bauplans they had, even in the new habitat.


>
> > The former retain long bony tails, of course, but it's not clear that basal 
> > paravians would have had important functional differences from
> > phasianids like peacocks with much heavier and longer masses of feathers on 
> > their tails. If turkeys and peacocks aren't close enough to basal paravians 
> > for you to serve as analogs,
> > then no animal alive on earth today is, so no analogs can be cited.
>
>
> Turkeys and peacocks are poor analogs for basal paravians.

 Then what is a great analog for basal paravians?

We would like to know...wouldn't that help a conversation immensely, for us to 
share a common agreed-upon analogy?