Re: Long-tailed Late Cretaceous Bird

["Timothy Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Christian Kammerer wrote:

> This "Archaeopteryx-sized bird" is known from an almost-complete skeleton
> missing only some forelimb parts and a few caudal verts. The tail is the
> most amazing aspect of the animal, as it is fully developed (no pygostyle)

Surely I can't be the only person who's thinking "Did this bird have a long 
tail when it died?"  ;-)


> It seems to represent a ground-dweller, so the
> more "dinosaurian" characteristics in it might just be a result of
> incipient secondary flightlessness, {snip}

The paper says the forelimbs of _Yangdangornis_ are incomplete.  I wonder, 
are they so incomplete that it's not possible to be sure if they were 
developed as wings or not?


Tim


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