Protoavis (was Re: solnhofen)

[Renesto Silvio <renesto@mailserver.unimi.it>]

>and 
certain postcranial features which suggest that _Megalancosaurus_ might have 
been a gliding animal (all challenged by Renesto, who restores 
_Megalancosaurus_ as a tree-climbing, non-gliding chameleon-like animal). 

I do not deny  that some small drepanosaurids might have been gliders, but
I did not consider  any postcranial feature representing a good evidence
for gliding as for, say,  Icarosaurus. However, who knows? How different is
the skeleton of a gliding ringtail  marsupial from that one of a
non-gliding ringtail?
 I preferred to be conservative. So far...

>>and how
>>none of these animals has yet been found anywhere else in the Dockum.
>
>Again, maybe they have been and no one has realized it yet (or at least 
>published on it...)

In my 2000 paper I  quoted as " personal communication" (with written
permission of the person quoted, so I can report it here)  that a  true
drepanosaurid shoulder girdle from the Dockum is indeed under study  ... 

 If not, I know that 
>drepanosaurids have been described from roughly contemporary horizons 
>elsewhere in North America.

Berman and Reisz 1992 Journal of Palaeontology 66(6) pp. 1001-1009
In that paper they described  _Dolabrosaurus aquatilis_  an incomplete
specimen that is undoubtedly a drepanosaurid from the Chinle Formation. And
very probably a climber, despite its name.

Colbert and Olsen have in press (Am. Mus. Novitates) the long awaited
description of the Deep Tailed Swimmer from the Triassic of Newark and they
consider it a drepanosaurid. Mmmm ... another drepanosaurid in water? :-/ 

All the best,

                                Silvio  Renesto 



-

"Before being enlightened,   hard work; after enlightenment, hard work"
(Guo Yunshen).

Dr. Silvio Renesto
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra
Università degli Studi di Milano
via Mangiagalli 34
I 20133 Milano
Italy

phone +39-0223698232
fax  +39-02-70638261

e-mail:    renesto@mailserver.unimi.it

or/and     Silvio.Renesto@unimi.it