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RE: Of course nonavian dinosaurs could fly - duh



Mickey Mortimer wrote:

"The reason BAD cladists were ground-up..."

Oh, my.  I was well aware that the rhetoric from the opposition has been
vitriolic to say the least, but I had no idea that the BAND-its had resorted
to such measures.  ;^)

But seriously, I cannot help but wonder if _Anchiornis_' fluffy legs would
have conferred some advantage in insulating and brooding clutches of eggs. 

In closing, I wish to congratulate you, Gregory S. Paul, for seeing your
prediction that there must have been feathered maniraptoran theropods
predating _Archaeopteryx_ and which lie outside of the group traditionally
referred to as birds (rightly or wrongly!) substantiated at last.  

Really and truly, this has always been the most parsimonious hypothesis.
It's baffling to me that there had been such resistance to the idea for so
long.  Now if only the media depictions of dinosaurs would catch up.
There's nothing like solid evidence -- however long in coming -- to
vindicate your vision.  And what a lovely specimen it is!       

Dino Guy Ralph
Docent at the California Academy of Sciences
Member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

Still on the lookout for news of feathered ornithomimids...