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Re: Coracoid/scapula (was Re: flying Archie)




David Marjanovic wrote:

Between the shoulders of *Rahonavis* + *Shenzhouraptor* and those of derived Enantiornithes. [snip]
That's what I mean. The "long-tailed birds" evolved it a third time.

Is this necessarily more parsimonious than a scenario under which the enantiornithine condition (peg-on-coracoid + socket-in-scapula) evolved ONCE, at the base of the clade comprising _Rahonavis_, _Shenzhouraptor_/_Jeholornis_ and all more derived birds? This would mean that this condition was retained in derived Enantiornithes, but lost independently in _Protopteryx_ and Euornithes? This requires two reversals instead of three independent acquisitions of the enantiornithine condition.


Cheers

Tim