Re: Longipteryx chaoyangensis (Aves, Enantiornithes?)

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> >>If it appears to be a (flight capable) bird from the skeleton, and
has=20
> preserved with integument, but the preservation shows it as "fuzz", is
it=20
> possible that what we have is the decayed remains of flight-capable=20
> feathers? That "fuzz" is one of the less well preserved modes for
feathers?<<
>
> It may be that fuzz is simply the most common body integument to be
preserved.
> Perhaps contour and flight feathers tend to be stripped from the body
after
> death

AFAIK, the opposite tends to happen in recent dead birds -- the wing & tail
feathers stay in place longest. This was used to explain why ?some
*Archaeopteryx* specimens ?lack contour feathers.

> (this thing fell into a river, right?)

Well, a lake, AFAIK.

> , leaving only the isulatory (is
> that a word?) fuzz behind.

I've read "insulatory" quite often. :-)