Re: Archaeopteryx or Velociraptor (I'm back...)...

[Sean Connell <thelip@flash.net>]

Dinogeorge@aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 97-07-04 02:04:35 EDT, enrique@sn.no (DinosØMP) writes:
> 
> << Does birds come from Archaeopteryx or late evolved small Dromaeosaurids,
>  like Velociraptor?!? >>
> 
> Neither. Birds, Archaeopteryx, and dromaeosaurids share a volant (flying,
> albeit not very good at it) common ancestor that existed probably during the
> Middle Jurassic. Archaeopteryx probably comes closest to the appearance of
> that common ancestor; dromaeosaurids were the common ancestor's derived
> cursorial descendants during the Early and Late Cretaceous, whereas birds
> were its derived flying (and better at it) descendants from Late Jurassic to
> date.
> 
> (There. Is that so hard to understand?)
And isn't it true that Tyrannosaurids might be secondarily
cursorial?-Sean C.