RE: Pterosaur story

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Danvarner@aol.com
>
> National Geographic has a remarkably sloppy story at:
> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/10/1029_031029_pteros
> aurs.html
> Pterosaurs are alternatively dinosaurs and birds.

Dan,

I did see those mistakes: the webpage title ("dinosaur flyers were
sharp-eyed,...") and the line "Bennett said that the orientation of the
semicircular canals in Anhanguera reflect selection for a down-turned
"normal" head position, but he is uncertain what a normal posture was for
this bird".

However, the rest of the time they seem to get it correct:

Whenever they discuss the position of pterosaurs they say that they are
"bird-like reptiles from the age of dinosaurs" and that alligators and birds
are "the closest living relatives of pterosaurs".

Perhaps you are thinking of the line "When the researchers compared the
pterosaur brains with those of modern birds...", but in that case I think
the sense is "comparing ptero brains to neornthine brains".

Or the final paragraph, starting "This finding on head orientation, added
Witmer, could lead to more studies on head posture in dinosaurs. " The sense
that I got from this paragraph was "now that we have a way to interpret head
posture in pterosaurs, let's see what this means for various types of
dinosaurs."

Or was there something else you were thinking of?

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796