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Re: VIVAPARITY
>What's the latest on Protoavis texensis? Chatterjee described the skull in '91
>(apparently), can someone give me a ref. for that? There were also rumours that
>he'd publish a complete description early this year. Anyone heard anything
>about
>that? And could those of you who know George Olshevsky (Dr. Holtz?) please ask
>him what he thinks of Protoavis, just out of curiosity.
Darren et al -
The reference to which you're referring is:
Chatterjee, S. (1991). "Cranial Anatomy and relationships of a new
Triassic bird from Texas," _Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B_ 332(1265):
277-342.
Yes, the second "half" of the paper was, is, and will be out later
this year -- the Royal Society's been sitting on it; it's in that nebulous
"it'll be out in a couple months" stage for almost a year now. I wonder if
they're having second thoughts, or if they're really that backed up... ;-)
George stated in his _Mesozoic Meanderings #2_ that he thought
_Protoavis_ was best suited as a theropod, although one with a very
bird-like skull. This, of course, fits in nicely with his theory that
birds didn't descend from theropods -- theropods descended from birds,
which, in turn, descended from some mildly bird-like "thecodonts" like
_Cosesaurus_, _Longisquama_, and _Megalancosaurus_. His assertion, for
anyone who hasn't read his article in _Omni_, is that the original
dinosaurs spring off of the lineage of thecodonts that were evolving into
birds. This, in his eyes, is why many theropods have bird-like traits --
because they inherited them from bird-like ancestors. He never quite
bothered with the question of why all the theropods with bird-like traits
are _not_ the Triassic ones, like _Coelophysis_! 8-)
Jerry D. Harris
Denver Museum of Natural History
2001 Colorado Blvd.
Denver, CO 80205
(303) 370-6403
Internet: jdharris@teal.csn.net
CompuServe: 73132,3372
--)::)> '''''''''''''/O\'''''''''''` Jpq-- =o}\ w---^/^\^o
Overheard in the Denver Museum's
old Fossil Mammal Hall, from a mother
to her daugher:
"See there? That's the camel-dinosaur, and
the horse-dinosaur, and the elephant-dinosaur..."
--)::)> '''''''''''''/O\'''''''''''` Jpq-- =o}\ w---^/^\^o