Re: sauropod quantity

[rjmeyer@ix.netcom.com (Rob Meyerson)]

Dinogeorge writes,

>These are not Coelophysis-size tracks but several times smaller. The smallest 
>dinos I can think of off the top of my head that are earlier than 
>Compsognathus are Segisaurus and Procompsognathus, which might have made the 
>>largest< of those small theropod tracks. There are no "sparrow-size" 
>nonavian dinos known from skeletal remains (maybe some teeny teeth) at all, 
>period. The tracks compare in size with, but are otherwise different from, 
>those of small mammals found in the same localities.

[[Warning: Speculation ahead]]

What are the odds that these critters are actually AVIAN dinos?  If we saw one 
of these small theropods in the feathers, would they be so totally birdlike, 
that they would be better placed with the birds?  If we assume that theropods 
of this age were endothermic, and if we assume that a small, above-ground, 
endotherm needs a warm covering, then we have a small theropod completely 
feathered.  If this critter exists, then perhaps one or two will have adapted 
some of the feathers for flight.

I know that without a skeleton, the above idea remains in hypothesis-mode (at 
best).  Comments?


Rob Meyerson

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