the press release

["John R. Hutchinson" <jrhutch@socrates.berkeley.edu>]

>From UC-Berkeley's press release, this should amuse folks...

>X-Sender: furcula@socrates.berkeley.edu
>Date: Fri, 06 Nov 1998 16:35:57 -0800
>To: "John R. Hutchinson" <jrhutch@socrates.berkeley.edu>
>From: Thomas Stidham <furcula@socrates.berkeley.edu>
>Subject: the press release
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>
>[396029]... AND FINALLY: SKETCH OF DEAD PARROT (pp29-30)
>     A fossil of a parrot that shuffled off its mortal coil and joined the
>     Choir Invisible as long ago as the Cretaceous Period, around 70
>     million years ago, will sharpen a debate about the origin of modern
>     birds. Some researchers think that many, if not most, modern orders of
>     birds originated and diversified well back in the Cretaceous; others
>     think that this diversification only got under way after the
>     Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) boundary, 65 million years ago.
>        In this week's Scientific Correspondence pages (p30), Thomas A.
>     Stidham of the University of California, Berkeley, California
>     describes the demised parrot, a fossil from the latest Cretaceous of
>     Wyoming. Most of the parrot has ceased to be, expired and gone to meet
>     its maker, and only part of the lower jaw is left - but the
>     identification as a parrot seems secure. Bereft of life, the parrot
>     rested in peace, and was pushing up the daisies (or equivalent
>     flowering plants) well before the K/T boundary - evidence for the
>     early diversification of 'terrestrial' groups of modern birds. The
>     loveliness of the plumage of this ex-parrot remains a matter of
>     conjecture.

                       --John R. Hutchinson