Re: Progressive birdyness?

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

> I've found no real evidence of such a trend, and I suspect it's because the
> common ancestor of dromaeosaurids diverged from the theropod-to-bird lineage
> earlier than the appearance of _Archaeopteryx_. Its descendants set
> themselves up as a clade of carnivores that lasted to the end of the
> Cretaceous.

    That is the reason I asked.  I was thinking in terms of Alan
Fedducia's claim that coelurosaurs got more birdy throughout the
Cretaceous, which would speak more strongly for convergence.

LN Jeff 
O-