Re: what if?

[Danvarner@aol.com]

In a message dated 8/30/99 2:11:36 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
thescelosaurus@juno.com writes:

<< My question is, then: How would dinosaur paleontology be different if
 Brown had published his "Daptosaurus" in the 1930s, instead of Ostrom
 publishing *Deinonychus* in 1969?-*Thescelosaurus*   
  >>

  Probably there would be no difference. "Daptosaurus" was never published, 
but Stenonychosaurus inequalis was, by C.M.Sternberg, about the same time in 
1932. Now more properly known as Troodon, Sternberg's illustration of the pes 
clearly shows the sickle-claw on digit#2. It was the suite of characters, 
including the unusual tail, that allowed Ostrom to more clearly envision the 
living animal over 35 years later. It was a matter of the right stuff, at the 
right time, with the right person to put it all together. Dan Varner.