Re: Ornithoms, Parrots, and others

["Jerry D. Harris" <102354.2222@compuserve.com>]

-------------------- Begin Original Message --------------------

Message text written by INTERNET:Dinogeorge@aol.com

"BUT many "standard model" paleontologists seemingly favor the
"ground up" theory >because< theropod phylogenies place ground-dwelling
theropods as more primitive than, and hence preceding and/or ancestral to,
birds. Lost in the shuffle is the idea that theropods might be secondarily
ground-dwelling--and not ancestral to birds but only their sister-groups
and
outgroups.
"
-------------------- End Original Message --------------------

        That's certainly true -- all the cursorial theropods we know
_could_ be secondarily flightless (or at least secondarily cursorial,
evolved from arboreal ancestors)...that's something that will have to be
bourn out by future discoveries of the presently hypothetical animals that
are either patently arboreal and/or volant.  Until those discoveries are
made, however, we have to base hypotheses on the evidence at hand!  This
isn't to say that your ideas are wrong -- they actually have a fair chance
of being absolutely on the mark.  Most scientists, however, seem to favor a
more conservative perspective, and not involve currently hypothetical
organisms in either their phylogenies or ideas about flight and
flightlessness.

                _,_
           ____/_\,)                    ..  _   
--____-===(  _\/                         \\/ \-----_---__
           /\  '                        ^__/>/\____\--------
__________/__\_ ____________________________.//__.//_________

                     Jerry D. Harris
                 Fossil Preparation Lab
          New Mexico Museum of Natural History
                   1801 Mountain Rd NW
               Albuquerque  NM  87104-1375
                 Phone:  (505) 899-2809
                  Fax:  (505) 841-2866
               102354.2222@compuserve.com