Yixian dino photos available

["Mickey Mortimer" <mickey_mortimer@email.msn.com>]

I just got my photos back from the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology and
several are of Sinosauropteryx, Protarchaeopteryx and Caudipteryx.  They are
closeups of some areas not well illustrated in the figures of Chen et al.
(1998) and Ji et al. (1998).  I will send them to anyone who writes me back
(off list) requesting them.  I will scan them to my computer soon and those
who write me will recieve them by the weekend.  The photos are-

Sinosauropteryx skull
Sinosauropteryx ilium
Protarchaeopteryx manus
Caudipteryx tail
Caudipteryx pectoral girdle
Caudipteryx manus (2)
Caudipteryx ilium
Caudipteryx pedes

For those of you who haven't seen the actual specimens, there are quite a
few features not suggested by the figures at all.  These include
Sinosauropteryx's very broad (anteroposteriorly) pubic peduncle and
Caudipteryx's well-preserved scapulacoracoid with an ornithothoracine-like
acromion process.  I didn't take many of Protarchaeopteryx because, quite
frankly, the specimen is crap and virtually nothing of interest can be
gained from casual inspection (I couldn't even find the coracoid!).

Mickey Mortimer