Re: Quo vadis, T. rex? [long]

[Jeffrey Martz <martz@holly.ColoState.EDU>]

> Although, if one really thinks about it, assuming that any theropod (or 
> any dinosaur) did *not* have feathers is just as big an assumption, 
> considering that all living dinosaurs do!

     Lets say we kill off all the placentals and monotremes in a mass 
extinction someday.  Similar logic might lead some space alien 
paleontologists to believe that all mammals had a marsupium.  Feathers 
being a characteristic of all dinosaurs, all theropods, or just a particular 
group of theropods are all possblities, but there is insufficient 
evidence to reach a conclusion.  I don't think the idea of feathers 
being a dinosaur or theropod trademark is at all more plausible than it 
being an innovation of one little twig off the theropod tree.  For the time 
being, the only thing we can say is that birds are KNOWN to have feathers, 
and dinosaurs are not.  

LN Jeff