Re: feathered coelurosaurs

[ornstn@hookup.net (Ronald Orenstein)]

>But more to the point, the only potential case of feathers or feather-like
>structures in nonavian dinosaurs known at present are the integumentary
>features of the recently described Pelecanimimus.  These consist of two
>series of fibres, one oriented perpendicular to the body, the other
>parallel.  Unforutnately, the photographs do not show them very well, and I
>haven't seen them in person yet.

This is very interesting; can you give more details?  I was also under the 
impression that there  was a print, possibly made by a bipedal dinosaur 
resting its forelimbs on the ground, that somone had claimed showed the 
imprint of what could be feathers. I have no details, though - sorry.
>
>It must be pointed out that the impression of feathers can only be
>preserved in very special cicumstances (such as the quiet anoxic carbonate
>lagoons of the Solnhofen).  As most dinosaurs are preserved from
>environments without fine-grained mud, there is no chance of feather
>preservation.  Thus, while there is not positive evidence of feathers in
>nonavian coelurosaurs, we have no positive information to reject the
>possibility, either.
>                                    
>Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.

Has it not also been claimed that the forelimb of Avimimus has a ridge that 
might have served as an anchor point for featjers (I recall feeling dubious 
about it when I read it)?  Perhaps more to the point, there are very few 
fossils of genuine, unquestionable birds that show feather imprints; we were 
just lucky with Archaeopteryx.
--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886 (home)
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