RE: Microraptor hanqingi, new species from China.

[Jason Brougham <jaseb@amnh.org>]

I thought you were going to note that the Archaeopteryx sample showed a large 
spread, a lot of morphological diversity for one genus. In both Glen and 
Bennett 2007 and the Gatesy/Middleton  paper Archaeopteryx had big spreads.

The clustering of these basal paravians within, not outside of, ground birds 
was reconfirmed by a large multivariate analysis: Dececchi and Larsson 201, 
Assessing Arboreal Adaptations of Bird Antecedents:Testing the Ecological 
Setting of the Origin of the Avian Flight Stroke, PloS one vol 6 issue 8 e22292
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 Given that those modern bird you name, are all *groups* of birds, I completely 
expect that they'd be a bad comparison with *A. lithographica*. (If you were to 
use that, as it, you wouldn't be comparing apples with lemons, you're comparing 
apples with citruses (or apples with fruits))