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On Sunday, July
26, my wife and went to NGS's Explorers Hall to see (it was the last day of
public viewing) the unforgettable display of the 'dino-birds' and two
Confuciusornis Sanctus.
The display was
so marvelous that we ended up staying far longer than originally planned.
And, to add icing to the cake, John Ostrom was there, longing for a chance, on
Monday (as Greg Paul has already described), to get a better look at the
wondrous fossils that truly make him a legend in his own time. [Ostrom
said that the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences "Dream Team" to
China for studying the 'dino-birds' had, due to a lack of high-quality optical
equipment, not had a really satisfactory look at what was there. He must
have relished Monday, to have a second and, hopefully, better
look.]
Dr. Ostrom
looked -- and justifiably -- proud as a father (or mother --guess I'd better not
be chauvinistic!) and was a delight as we discussed the exhibit with
him.
There is
something about the two "Confuciusornis sanctus" that puzzled
me. I asked Dr. Ostrom about it, but he really had not studied
Confuciusornis sanctus and said he probably should not try to solve the
mystery. So,maybe someone out there in dino-list world
could proffer a satisfactory resolution of my 'problem' with those two
birds.
I'm certainly
not an expert on skeletal anatomy, so will not otherwise comment on the pair of
"Confuciusornis sanctus" excepting in two specific
areas.
The heads of
both were so alike that I felt reasonably sure they are the same type bird ( I
wouldn't question that), and, admittedly they look to me as strictly an amateur,
like heads of Confuciusornis sanctus. But, the reason for my quandary is
this:
In
"Confuciusosnis sanctus, a new Late Jurassic sauriurine bird from
China", wherein the type specimen is described and named, by HOU Lianhai,
ZHOU Zhonge, GU Yucai, and ZHANG He, in the CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN,
September, 1995, Volume 40, Number 18, page 1546, under DIAGNOSIS, it says,
"Proximal end of humerous expanded with A PNEUMATIC FORAMEN". [My
emphasis.]
Neither of the
"Confuciusornis sanctus" specimens on display show the DIAGNOSTIC
PNEUMATIC FORAMEN! Yes, the humerous is expanded proximally, but no such
pneumatic foramen is to be seen!
Could we
actually have a different species there? Or, could it be that the
pneumatic foramen only exists in the species for a certain age span and the
diagnosis needs to be altered? The correct answer to this question must
surely be of some importance.
"Help,
Feduccia! Help, anyone with knowledge!" I've gotta sleep at
night! ;-)
Ray
Stanford
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