RE: Deinonychosaurian closeness to birds (was dinodimorphism)

["Tracy L. Ford" <dino.hunter@home.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of T.
Mike Keesey
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 8:50 PM
To: Jaime A. Headden
Cc: -Dinosaur Mailing List-
Subject: Deinonychosaurian closeness to birds (was dinodimorphism)

On Thu, 20 Dec 2001, Jaime A. Headden wrote:

>   Also in the same issue of _CJES_ is a paper by Xu and Zhang on the
cranial anatomy of
> *Sinornithosaurus*, including two interesting qualities. One, there is, in
prep from an analysis
> of one of the species themselves, the suggestion that the earliest
dromaeosaurids
(deinonychosaurs, no?)
> were the most birdlike, and that the most derived were not.

Not entirely unexpected. How does this apply to _Utahraptor_ (contemporary
with the Liaoning forms) and _Deinonychus_ (living in the next age),
though?<<

They are large ground based (or partly), secondarily flightless forms. There
are other forms being described that will blow you all AWAY!!! (I can say no
more, Bauwhhhhaaa....)
The arguments that Feduccia, Martin, and his followers, ain't worth a hill
of beans (as we already knew).

Tracy L. Ford
P. O. Box 1171
Poway Ca  92074