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Re: Coracoid/scapula (was Re: flying Archie)
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.
It would require two more reversals -- in *Sapeornis* and in
Confuciusornithidae. Four reversals instead of two or maybe three
acquisitions.