Re: Archaeopteryx skull redescribed and reconstructed

[GSP1954@aol.com]

The Rauhut paper is quite good. The demonstation of an articulation on the 
jugal for the postorbital is particularly nicely done. It will be 
interesting to see how this impacts the phylogenetic placement of Archaeopteryx 
relative to other deinonychosaurs and birds. 

My one problem is that I did a similar, albeit not identical, restoration 
in Dinos Air. When I saw the Eichstatt specimen in the castle in 81 I 
immediately saw the nonavian nature of the palate etc. I noted the theropodian 
nature of the skull in 84, and illustrated it in PDW including a complete 
postorbital bar, back when most restoration were still showing widly avain 
systems 
and kinesis based on no fossil evidence and the premise that Arch was a 
birds much closer to modern aves than dinosaurs. Dinos Air of presented a 
revised version, and may update it in accord with Rauhut's results. None of my 
work is cited in the new paper. 

GSPaul</HTML>