Re: PYGOSTYLES & PENGUINS

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Phillip Bigelow wrote:

  [[on the subject of the distal caudal structures in
*Pteranodon*, Barsbold's new ovi, and birds]]

  <Since I don't know the answer, I'll ask a question
myself: Why can't they all be called pygostyles?
  ... Why cannot the same dichotomy be applied to
pygostyles?>

  Find the definition of pygostyle. As originally
found in birds, it follows that is is the extensive
fusion of distal caudal vertebrae [in birds]; remove
the partisanship in the definition, and you have the
one that should be applied. Possibly, we might want to
add a qualifier to the term, to clarify what we are
talking about (i.e., "avian" pygostyle, "pteranodont"
pygostyle, "oviraptorosaurian" pygostyle, et alii, et
cetera, ad nauseum....).

  The morphologies differ, but I _did_ post on the
*Pteranodon* structure, I don't know how far back, and
so someone could do a comparative dinosaurian
pygostyle analysis in relation to all this. I've got
my hands full with work, sleep, oviraptorosaurs, and
some other really fun animals like warthogs, otherwise
I'd do a short right up here on the list. Such is
life.


=====
Jaime "James" A. Headden

"Come the path that leads us to our fortune."

Qilong---is temporarily out of service.
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