Re: OVIRAPTOROSAURIA! Part One [Overview]

["Ray Stanford" <starsong@prodigy.net>]

    Sorry, but I have to get in on this one:

    Richard W Travsky asked,

SNIP-

>Feathered? Just out of curiosity, were any ground surface impressions
>preserved at this site? Impressions that would indicate feathers?


SNIP-

    The Oviraptor(s) over their nests with spread arms seem to suggest that
feathered arms protected eggs from thermal extremes.

    No, there have not been any feather impressions noticed, BUT...

    The dry, highly wind-vulnerable situation involved would not readily
lend itself to feather impressions.  That was a very arid environment (no
substantial water), which is very important to really good impressions.
Also, there was no slow, layer-upon-layer aquatic deposition of sediment in
the way most conducive to a record of subtle detail.  Thus, even if
Oviraptors had abundant feathers, there would surely be an almost zero
probability of finding feather impressions, under the circumstances.

    If an Oviraptor had been deposited in the kind of environment that
preserved Confuciusornis sanctus, the remains might show us well-feathered
arms (wings).

    Yes, it is only speculation that Oviraptor had feathered arms, but it is
highly reasonable, well-thought-out speculation and based upon the a
repeatedly observed arm-spread position, along with other data.  This
probability [Yep, I'll risk calling it that.] should be seriously
considered, no matter where one currently comes down on the dino-bird
question(s).

    Ray Stanford