Re: Protoavis

["Patrick Norton" <ptnorton@email.msn.com>]

>> why would a theropod have such an advanced flight related structure>>

>I believe there are Coelurosaurs outside of Avialae that possess an
>acrocoracoid tuberosity, so I'm not sure it is necessarily a flight related
feature.  I'll certainly defer to more knowledgeable list members on
that,however.>


Just to follow up (I just found the article I was thinking about) Gauthier
(1986) found a pronounced coracoid tuberosity among the Deinonychosauria as
well as Avialae. According to him, that is only one of many synapomorphies
shared by the common ancestor of birds and dienonychosaurs and is related to
the folding and unfolding of the hands and arms during prey capture--motions
that were apparently similar to the flight stroke.