Velociraptor furcula

[Nick Longrich <longrich@stardot.com>]

        What's got me puzzled right now is why Velociraptor doesn't have a 
furcula. Oviraptor has one, T. rex has one, even Allosaurus has one, but 
apparently the articulated "fighting" specimen doesn't. Is it really 
absent? I did read something in the photo caption about it being a 
"juvenile" specimen, so perhaps it wasn't fully ossified, but it looked 
pretty well grown to me. Whatever the case, its recent ancestors must 
have had one, or else we'd have to postulate at least three independent 
evolutions of the thing, and it's vastly easier to assume that it was at 
least present at the allosaur-coelurosaur node or earlier. 

        nick L.