MANIRAPTORA PREDATING _ARCHAEOPTERYX_

["D.W.Naish" <dwn194@soton.ac.uk>]

(Ronald Orenstein writes):
> 5. There are extremely strong similarities between Archaeopteryx and various
> maniraptorian dinosaurs, though most of these postdate Archaeopteryx by a
> considerable period.

Padian and Jensen, as many of you may well know, described maniraptoran material
from the Morrison, so maniraptors were perhaps fairly widespread in late
Jurassic times. The Bristol palaeontology team, Benton et al, described
maniraptor fragments from their BATHONIAN site here in the UK. Thus pre-
_Archaeopteryx_ maniraptors _are_ known.

BCF seems at least appealing to many of those I have spoken to, but the
consensus remains that it lacks the evidence, and, despite what George says,
nothing convincing has appeared to make BADD (I think I prefer TH's term.. what
was it again?) appear at all sterile. I wonder how many of those interested are
aware that similar, 'alternative' lineages have been hypothesised in the
literature - for taxa other than archosaurs - , but - because they lack the
material evidence - do not win significant support. I do not want to offend
George by putting his ideas in the same boat as those who believe that whales
are derived ichthyosaurs, or that mammals are direct descendants of amphibians,
but the principles seem much the same.

I post this here as I'm hoping that people generally like to see discussion of
it, hope you don't mind George.

"A patriot is just a man with nothing more to say, who nails his heart to a
broken flag that forgets him anyway"

DARREN NAISH