Re: Again: origin of bird flight

[TomHopp@aol.com]

David Marjanovic@gmx.at wrote:

<<terrestriality of _Caudipteryx_ and oviraptorids, and troodontids . . . and 
velociraptorines, would be secondary under this scenario.>>

<Just a question here -- is there still anyone on this list who thinks that 
the abovementioned groups are not secondarily flightless? :-) >

Me. Or, more precisely, I could see it either way. Nothing I have seen or 
read has demonstrated a fossil record in favor of the secondarily flightless 
argument. All known feathers are entirely consistent with brooding. Thus, the 
creeping feeling that flight must have been in there somewhere only works on 
others, not me. Everything is consistent with a linear progression toward 
longer brooding wing feathers in the ancestors of all known feathered 
theropods. 

Thomas P. Hopp