Re: Terrible new paper

["Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Mickey Mortimer wrote:

> Anyway, it's clear that recent discoveries like Cryptovolans and 
> Microraptor
> gui prove dromaeosaurs were feathered.

Oh Mickey, you are behind the times.  Get with the program, dude.  Haven't 
you heard: _Cryptovolans_ and _Microraptor_ are really birds.  The Theropoda 
is diphyletic, and feathered theropods (e.g., _Cryptovolans_, _Microraptor_, 
_Protarchaeopteryx_, _Caudipteryx_) aren't theropods at all.  Birds and 
feathered dromaeosaurs belong to a group called the "Maniraptora", which 
evolved from thecodonts independent of true theropods (ceratosaurs, 
allosaurs, tyrannosaurs, etc).  Czerkas and co. recently put forward this 
brilliant theory, and I think we are going to here a lot about it in the 
near future, especially from ... well, you know who.

All sarcasm aside, the paper by Lingham-Soliar is twaddle.




Tim

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