Re: other challenges

["Matthew Troutman" <m_troutman@hotmail.com>]

<<I guess I should now concentrate on some of Martin's challenges
(e.g., semilunate perhaps not strictly homologous in birds and theropods?;  
etc.), and Ruben's more recent challenge about the lungs (hepatic piston  
and all that).>>

Martin's (1991; I think) argument about the semilunate appears to be the 
same as published by Tarsitano (1991; and I think Tarsitano and Hecht, 
1980); a juvenile _Deinonychus_ appears to exhibit fusion of two seperate 
carpi to form a semilunate, whereas the semilunate of birds is a single 
element.  Of course, the value of this evidence is questionable, we need 
more specimens and a reinterpretation of the evidence.

Ostrom in his desriptions of _Deinonychus_ screwed up on identifying the 
indentity of the semilunate element, he saw it as a radiale which is a 
seperate element from the semilunate in avian wrists.  Current thinking 
identifies the semilunate as D1 carpal.

Matt Troutman
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