Re: _Liaoningornis_

["Mickey P. Rowe" <mrowe@indiana.edu>]

Tom Holtz wrote about distinguishing birds from non-avian dinosaurs:

> Above the level of Archaeopteryx, it becomes easy: a big keeled
> sternum, the presence of a pygostyle (the shortened fused tail of
> birds), loss of a bunch of dorsal vertebrae to the sacrum, and
> related features.

In the March issue of _Natural History_, the article on dinosaurs from
Madagascar describes a Cretaceous bird (the one with the sickle claw
on its foot; it's been mentioned here before) as a bird even though it
has a long bony tail rather than a pygostyle.  Just thought I'd throw
a lemur wrench into Tom's easy guide to bird recognition :-)

--
Mickey Rowe     (mrowe@indiana.edu)