Re: Dromaeo pubes & Oviraptor sterna

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

the Incomparable Dr. Tom wrote:

<Quite so.  What I should have pointed out was that _Sinraptor_ and
_Baryonyx_ were more like modern birds than some *specimens* of
dromaeos, oviraptorids, etc.: in _Sinraptor_ and _Baryonyx_ the sterna
are fully fused to each other into a single block with a keel, whereas
some maniraptoran specimens (i.e., the dromaeosaurid specimen IGM
100/985 in the Norell and Makovicky paper) the left and right plates
have not fused along the midline.>

  The same goes for an *Oviraptor* in the Audubon Dino-Bird article,
1997. This is a really smaller critter, and the form of the mandible
(the angular and surangular are fully separate and disarticulate) the
sterna are also separate, but fully ossified but for the median parts;
no evidence of a keel, though. I would definately say age has a
consideration on this specimen, which I have incidentaly illustrated
as one of the two *Oviraptor* skeletons on my site. It's the
long-necked one (13 cervicals!); to give an indication of its size,
the skull is only about 5 inches (close to 13 cm) long, compared to GI
100/42 (illustrated in PDW and my site and just about everywhere else)
which is 10 inches, or 26.4 cm.

==
- Often, it is the man who is brought
  down the path to the end who does
  not see his own steps. -

Jaime A. Headden

Qilong, the website, at:
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