FEATHERED THEROPODS

[Tetanurae@aol.com]

Truett Garner wrote:
<<Prove they had feathers and
 I'll draw them that way .Last time I looked ,
 Dromaeosaurids were still considered non-avian theropods , not birds.>>

Since this list is supposed to discuss science, it should be pointed out that
you can never prove anything, although you can falsify (disprove) certain
hypotheses.

Again, all current cladograms show that Sinosauropteryx - a Chinese
compsognathid - falls outside of the clade Eumaniraptora.  Sinosauropteryx
almost certainly had a covering of some sort of hairlike structures which are
hollow LIKE THE SHAFTS OF FEATHERS.  This has been confirmed by Phil Currie
and all the Chinese workers which are the ones who have friggin flown to
Beijing and Nanjing and examined the specimens first hand, and not just looked
at photos.

Back to the subject.  Parsimony dictates that since the sister taxon to
dromaeosaurids (birds) were feathered, and an outgroup (Sinosauroptryx) had
hairlike structures that were hollow like feather shafts, then dromaeosaurids
should have had some sort either hairy covering, or feathers.

Additionally, the most recent (and only) analysis with Protarchaeopteryx
showed that it fell in an unresolved trichotemy with dromaeosaurs and birds,
which means that 2 of the three possible places for Protarchaeopteryx to
actually show up, shows that the common ancestor of dromaeosaurus and
Protarchaeopteryx had real gosh darned feathers.

 <<And
 BTW, I didn't say ANY Velociraptor had been found with skin
 impressions( note ' etc. ' ). I was referring to the meager amount of skin
 impressions found with any dinosaurs  to date >>

Speaking of.....  It must be pointed out that the lithograph limestones would
not show any sort of soft feathers.  The feathers preserved on Archaeopteryx
are moulds, not the carbonized true fossil feathers seen on the Chinese
specimens.  It was asserted earlier, that Compsognathus had naked skin from
the fossils.  Nothing could be farther from the truth in fact.  As far as the
fossil is concerned Compsognathus didn't even have any skin!

 <<The relationship between Dromaeosaurids and Aves
 is the best educated guess at the moment , untill the ' latest and greatest
 ' find proves it wrong>>

Indeed, an educated guess probably more secure than relationship between
chimps and humans.

Peter Buchholz
Tetanurae@aol.com