Re: EARLY BIRD EVOLUTION

[GSP1954@aol.com]

More on the avian attributes of early birds versus dinosaurs. 

The pterygoid of the Eichstatt and newest Archaeopteryx are virtually
complete. A modest but well developed ectopterygoid process is present in
both, it is still articulated with the ectopterygoid in the Eichstatt skull
which I have directly examined (this structure was misidentified as part of a
propulsion joint by Elzanowski and Wellnhofer, a rare mistake in their
excellent description).

Citing Martin, eh? Tis more productive to refer to Wellnhofer's 1974 and 1993
descriptions of the Eichstatt and newest specimens in which the figures
clearly show that the cervical ribs of Archaeopteryx are very long, slender,
and overlapping in the typical archosaur manner. Nor are the cervicals
proportionally shorter than other theropods, instead they are somewhat more
elongate than usual. In dromaeosaurs the ribs
are short, stout and overlapping in a near avian manner.

See Fig 14 in Ostrom's description of Deinonychus to see how reduced the
postero-lateral process of the palatine is. In Allosaurus the process is large
and complex.  

I am not going to go yet again into the fact that in the majority of
Archaeopteryx specimen the pubes are subvertical. 

GSPaul