Re: *Microraptor* the biplane: published

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> <<What sort of fossil would cinch either side?  If there definitively 
> *was* a
> biplane stage, what might we one day find?>>
>
> <At least two double-decked basal bird clades.>
>
>  Not neccessarily true. [...]

I was talking about parsimony. One gain and one loss of the double-decked 
condition would be more parsimonious than three gains.

> <<If there definitively *was not* a biplane stage, what would we find
> instead?>>
>
> <At least two single-decked basal dromaeosaur clades ("dromaeosaur" here
> actually meaning "everything closer to *Microraptor* than to birds").>
>
>  We would have to find out that *Microraptor* was not, in fact, a biplane.

That's of course another possibility.