Re: Olfactory Lobes & Large Yixian Theropods (was Re: New here, General Qs)

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> Bradley Fischer wrote: 
> >2. How does T-Rex brain structure compare with Dromeosaurs and other 
> >small theropods? 
 
As expected, it's considerably more birdlike than that of 
*Giganotosaurus*. 
 
> >On a different topic: In a fairly recent issue of Scientific American, 
> >there is an article about the evolution of feathers and their 
> >beginnings on theropods. The article suggests that even T-rex probably 
> >was feathered. Only problem I have with this theory is that the subject 
> >sample is all from china and they found no large theropods with 
> >feathers. Anyone care to comment on this? Am I off on my thinking? 
 
Yes. Take phylogenetic bracketing into account. It would be rather 
surprising if *T. rex* was completely featherless throughout its life 
cycle -- though of course this is not directly testable at the moment... 
if it's true that at least some specimens that are currently called 
*Sinosauropteryx* are less closely related to birds than *T. rex*, which 
seems to be the case. 
 
> Sadly, there are not yet any large theropods recovered from the Yixian 
> Formation.  Come to think of it, off hand, I can't think of any large 
> vertebrates from the Yixian.  If there are, could someone please list  
> them with length and mass estimates? 
 
Search the archives for *Jinzhousaurus*. (Preferably without asterisks or 
anything.) It's an "iguanodont" of reasonable size. 

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