Re: "Feathery fossil shows birds aren't dinosaurs"

[HPB1956@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/24/00 1:14:25 PM EST, jeffmartz@earthlink.net wrote:

<< Where are the fossils of the middle-late Jurassic dinobirds that
 immediately proceeded Archaeopteryx?  >>

Last year I was lucky to see Compsognathus and Archaeopterix in Munich. I was 
very impressed by their small size. And that's the problem with finding these 
middle-late Jurassic theropods, they are so small and delicately built. The 
chances of fossilation for these small critters are very very very low.

Chances are improving if you've got a lagerstaetten like e.g. Solnhofen. But 
as DinoGeorge noted even there only eight fossils of Archaeopteryx and just 
one fossil of Compsognathus have ever been discovered.

And think about it, between the Bathonian and the Tithonian there are very 
few small theropods known. That make's quite a gap of about 20ma!

So having found none of these middle-late Jurassic dinobirds doesn't proof 
that there weren't any. It just means that we have to wait until more fossils 
(hopefully) will be found.

Cheers from a rainy Germany

Heinz Peter Bredow