Re: Errata: A new "Revolution" installment.

["Dino Guy Ralph" <ralph.miller@alumni.usc.edu>]

Breathtaking!  Luis, you've done it again!

Now the question.  _Microraptor gui_ hails from the Jiufotang Formation,
which overlies the Yixian, and postdates it by perhaps 10 to 15 million
years.  Ditto for its apparent synonym, "_Cryptovolans pauli_."  So the
question is: does _Microraptor gui_ belong in a Yixian ecosystem?

Could the four-winged sinornithosaurs in the background instead be young
_Sinornithosaurus millennii_ individuals?  Gregory S. Paul's article in
_Prehistoric Times_ suggests the possibility that the four sinornithosaurs
(_S. millennii_, _M. zhouianus_, _C. pauli_, and _M. gui_) should be
considered congeneric.

I'm trying to find a way to keep those beautiful four-winged dromaeosaurs in
the picture.  I don't want you to have to paint them out!

The other option would be to propose that _Microraptor gui_ originated much
earlier than the published fossils indicate.  _Psittacosaurus_ and
_Sinornithosaurus_ are examples of dinosaur genera found in both formations.
Do you know something we don't?  (It wouldn't surprise me).

See _Nature_, Feb. 20, 2003, pp.807-814, "An exceptionally preserved Lower
Cretaceous ecosystem," by Zhonghe et al..

--------
"Dino Guy" Ralph W. Miller III
Docent at the California Academy of Sciences
proud member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

Or does four-winged flight facilitate time travel?  ;^)