Re: Giant birds

["Ahmed al-Mahasa Sha'ad" <am_shaad@hotmail.com>]

Their is a brid called Palaeocursornis from the late Cretaceous of Rumania 
that has been cvalled a ratite but I tihnk its too fragmentory to be sure 
what it really is  - apart from a bird!!  But Dan sorry I am not sure what 
you arae asking.


> >>My thanks to Drs. Ruhe and Headden for providing the elusive reference 
> of
> the Cretaceous synsacrum. After some reading I wondered if Gargantuavis
> philoinos was the only large "bird" sensu strictu that has been described
> from the Mesozoic? Is there any evidence for others. Is it likely that
> Western Europe did not have an Avimimid or Ornithomimid fauna in the
> Cretaceous that allowed the large birds to occupy that niche normally taken
> by non-avian theropods.Another matter I would appreciate clarification is 
> as
> to why the 'Struthioid' body plan was not explored before the Cretaceous
> where it was independently achieved by at least 3 lines.<<
>
> Now wait a minute.  As if this wasn't complicated enough.
> So during the Creatacious there were ostrictch-like flightless birds in 
> Europe?
> Arn't all those dinosaurs (stromemosaurs, oviraptors, etc.) considered to 
> be
> flightless birds nowadays, too?  I'd never heard of this European Ostritch, 
> did
> it have fingers and a tail?
>
> Dan

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