Shuvuuia deserti: selected quotes from the authors, and a comment.

[bh162@scn.org (Phillip Bigelow)]

Folks,

Just as the List-hooplah about _Shuvuuia deserti_ is abating,
the issue of _Nature_ describing it *finally* arrives on
the shelf at my locality yesterday!

For those who don't have access to _Nature_ at their local
library, I have included a few selected quotes from the authors.
A comment follows the quotes. The title of their paper is:

"The Skull of a relative of the stem-group bird Mononykus

by Luis M. Chiappe, Mark A. Norell, and James M. Clark


                       Systematic Paleontology

        Aves (Avialae sensu Gauthier, 1986) Linnaeus, 1758

                Metornithes Perle et al. 1993

                Alvarezsauridae Bonaparte 1991

                    Mononykinae tax. nov.

                Shuvuuia deserti gen et sp. nov.


Holotype: MGI 100/975

Localities:  Ukhaa Tolgod  and Tugrugeen Shireh, Mongolia.
             (Tentatively, the Djadokhta Formation).


...the maxilla bears numerous tiny, unserrated teeth, identical
to those of Mononykus.  Teeth are absent behind the rostral third
of the antorbital fossal <<which is characteristic of nearly all
advanced non-avian theropods!! (pb)>>.  The teeth lay in a
continuous groove on the dentary.


The postorbital fails to reach the jugal, so the orbit and
infratemporal fossa are continuous; this condition is known
only for metornithine birds among archosaurs, although it may be
present in Achaeopteryx.

...The configuration of the jugal and suspensorium...
suggests a capacity for intracranial kinesis....this interpretation
is supported by the absence of a continuous nasno-orbital septum."
                  END OF QUOTES

It is very good paper on the avian placement of the Alvarezsauridae,
but I have got a major gripe, anyway, and it focusses more
on the journal _Nature_ than it does on the authors.

All the illustrations are *raster* images!!!  I couldn't believe it!

Both the half-tones and the line drawings are bitmap print-outs.
The illustration quality suffers because of this.  Diagonal
image edges are so ragged that one could carve a turkey with
them.  This may not be a problem with larger images, but
with the small illustrations that characterize weekly journals,
it only compounds the problem.

In my opinion, _Nature_ should go back to printing only
conventional photographs (I am now stepping down off my soap box).

Ref.

Chiappe, L.M., M.A. Norell, and J.M. Clark. 1998. The skull
   of a relative of the stem-group bird Monoykus. _Nature_
   volume 392:275-278.

                <pb>


--
                 Phil Bigelow
                 bh162@scn.org