Re: Polly Want a Dinosaur?

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <th81@umail.umd.edu>]

At 01:32 PM 11/5/98 -0800, Jaime A. Headden wrote:

[concerning the purported Lancian parrot]
 
>  Compare to *Chirostenotes sp.* in Currie, Godfrey, and Nessov, 1993.
>A really robust caenagnathid jaw, about as long as *Chirostenotes
>pergracilis* (Sternberg, 1940) NMC 8667, the type for *Caenagnathus
>collinsi*, but far deeper; also from the Hell Creek Formation,
>Montana? [I don't have my ref with me right now, but it is USA].

Not to sound like a broken record, but could people please wait to get the
details (as in "read the paper")?  Stidham *explicitly* compares it to
caenagnathid material, and finds many significant differences.  He also
finds some psittaciform synapomorphies on the specimen.

Not that skepticism isn't the key to science (it is, and I am a very keen
fan of it), but could people please wait to see the various papers and
analyses before assuming the authors didn't already think of this or that
particular point?

[I hope that something comes along soon so I can be posting positive, rather
than negative, comments on the list... :-S].

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Vertebrate Paleontologist     Webpage: http://www.geol.umd.edu
Dept. of Geology              Email:tholtz@geol.umd.edu
University of Maryland        Phone:301-405-4084
College Park, MD  20742       Fax:  301-314-9661