Birds and archosaurs

[CORWIN3210@aol.com]

An intern of mine is working on a report for her vertebrate morphology class
about the origins of the avians. She has come across a number of strange
theories which I have not heard of. One, is advanced by a paper by Martin
(and others) in the early 80's stating that the crocodilians gave rise to the
birds. Does anyone out there know the background of this "theory"?
Also, there was some work published early this year which suggested that Late
Cretaceous birds show growh rings within their bones and may have been
ectothermic, or at least not totally endothermic. Does anyone know what
became of this idea?
I'd appreciate any comments.

Bill Barbour
Assistant Education Curator
Natural Science Center of Greensboro