Re: More evidence of dinosaur colors

[Augusto Haro <augustoharo@gmail.com>]

2010/2/7 Tim Williams <tijawi@yahoo.com>:
> This last point (startling small prey) reminds me of an idea I had a few 
> years back regarding the short wings of _Caudipteryx_.  I wrote:
> "Basal oviraptorosaurs (_Caudipteryx_, _Protarchaeopteryx_, _Incisivosaurus_) 
> also have procumbent teeth. These critters might have included arthropod prey 
> in their diet. One idea of mine (completely untestable, and so not worth a 
> jot) is that these theropods used their wings and feathered tails to flush 
> insects out of small trees into the open, like some birds do today (wagtails, 
> etc)."
> http://dml.cmnh.org/2007Apr/msg00313.html
> At the time, the idea of reconstructing the colors of plumage in fossil 
> theropods seemed like science fiction.  But now... maybe the idea is not 
> *untestable* any more.  The 'wagtail' hypothesis is certainly not as wacky as 
> it sounded back then.

Sorry Tim, but what makes your wagtail hypothesis more testable, or
more or less wacky, now than in 2007?
Not that I can mind arguments to oppose to it, except perhaps for EPB
(I suppose it is not present in the most basal Recent Neornithes,
although I cannot assure the presence/absence of this feature in
them).