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RE: New dinobird "Sinovenator" (the basal _Troodontid_)
Rutger Jansma wrote:
>The overall similarities to Archaeopteryx can also be explained by it's
>more basal position in the Deinonychosauria, since (what a suprise) it >has
evolved from a Archeopteryx type of creature. Greg Paul must be >laughing
his pants of since he was the one who thought a decade ago or >so that the
"maniraptors" were secondary flightles and had to have >evolved from flying
ancestors. [snip] I think we all need to give HP >G.S. Paul a very big
appologie! :)
Hold the phones. Greg Paul may indeed be correct; but equating (1) a basal
position for _Archaeopteryx_ relative to deinonychosaurs with (2)
deinonychosaurs being secondarily flightless is not entirely correct. (At
least not yet.) Other scenarios are equally plausible - and equally
congruent with the observed distribution of characters. For example: basal
paravians were small-bodied, flightless predators that leaped from trees
onto prey below. Only the Avialae stuck to this technique - and refined it
further.
To find out what is most likely to have happened (i.e. what basal paravians
were doing), we still need to identify a taxon basal to the
Deinonychosauria-Avialae split, hopefully with integument intact. Or just
ask Ken.
>Oh yeah, before I forget: great thanks to everyone from my friend for
>helping with it's schoolproject
"It"? What kind of company are you keeping, Rutger?
:-)
Tim
------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy J. Williams
USDA-ARS Researcher
Agronomy Hall
Iowa State University
Ames IA 50014
Phone: 515 294 9233
Fax: 515 294 3163