Re: T-Tip

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 1/9/00 12:55:40 PM EST, dbensen@gotnet.net writes:

<< The
 fossilized hand of Compsognathus is so badly preserved that it is impossible 
to
 tell by looking at it, how many fingers it had.  Since Sinosauropteryx is 
closely
 related to Compsognathus, and since Sinosaruopteryx definitely had three 
fingers,
 it's safe to assume that Compsognathus did as well. >>

Not safe to assume anything in paleo! There is no evidence for a third manual 
digit in the type specimen of Compsognathus longipes; even though the third 
manual digit in most theropods has the greatest number of phalanges (four), 
not one phalanx of the expected eight (counting both hands) is preserved. But 
most of the ten phalanges of the other two digits are. Why would all the 
phalanges of the third manual digits on both hands be missing, yet almost all 
(if not all) the phalanges of the other two digits on both hands remain with 
the specimen? Also, I'm pretty sure the third metacarpal lacks the 
articulation condyles for a phalanx; it just ends in a rounded surface to 
which a functioning digit probably couldn't attach. So Ostrom tentatively 
concluded that the third digit was absent and the third metacarpal was 
vestigial.