Re: theropod tongues

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 97-06-09 23:01:38 EDT, dwlewis@rmii.com (Douglas W. Lewis)
writes:

<< I personally believe that dinosaurs are birds ancestors. One species might
be(I'm talking along the lines of Avimimus [I think it's Avimimus] and
Archaeoptorex[spelling?])the birds' ancestor. But I think that dinosaurs were
just similar to birds and reptiles. I think that they were their own class(or
phylum,or whatever). >>

You could say that dinosaurs are bird ancestors, but it's more productive to
turn this around and consider birds as ancestral to dinosaurs. Not the modern
birds of the Cenozoic, of course, but gliding and flying birds similar to but
more primitive than _Archaeopteryx_. Among their secondarily flightless
descendants are all the theropod dinosaurs.