Early Birds

[Adam Yates <zooamy@zoo.latrobe.edu.au>]

During discussions on Early birds no one even mentions Protoavis. Now I 
know that most vertebrate palaeontologists have been skeptical of 
Sankar's elaborate reconstructions based on what is probably a small 
fluvial accumulation of bones from several differant taxa. However in 
amongst the collection are some very puzzling pieces, including what for 
all the world looks like an arctometatarsalian metatarsus (comments Tom?). 
Also has any one seen the Shuvosaurus 
skull? needless to say the presence of derived coelurosaurs (which 
otherwise appear to be products of a Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous 
radiation) in the Late Triassic,  is hard to swallow.