Therizinosaurs

[dbensen <dbensen@gotnet.net>]

In a message dated 9/6/99 00:57:42  EDT, Dinogeorge@aol.com writes:

<< Earlier this very evening I had an opportunity to examine casts of a
new
segnosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Utah. Whew! All I can say is,
well,
segnosaurs certainly are theropods after all--the slender,
boomerang-shaped
furcula shows this, as well as some of the other material--and I would
now
say they're likely even closer to avialan birds than dromaeosaurids are.

There's even a chance they're closer to modern birds than Archaeopteryx
is
(based on the backward pubis, tooth shape in this specimen, and a few
other
features).>>

Well, this brings up another interesting topic.  You say therizinosaurs
are
closer to birds than dromeosaurs?  Are they flightless birds like
dromeosaurs
(dromeosaurs=flightless birds is from Predatory Dinosaurs of the World
and may
be out of date, is it still a viable theory?)

What about therizinosaurs' link with oviraptorosaurs?

What sort of feathers do they have, anyway?  Bristles?  The hairlike
feathers
of _Sinosauropteryx_?  Birdlike conture feathers?

Wow, to live in a world where dinosaurs have turned from reptiles into
flightless birds.  What a time to be alive.