Re: SHORT Re: woo-o-o-o-o-o-o doggy!

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

David Marjanovic (david.marjanovic@gmx.at) wrote:

<So *Avimimus* could be a sorta kinda chimera after all, similar to what
was suggested earlier (mid-late 90s)? Interesting.>

  Not exactly. Only the hypodigm appears to be a form of chimaera, in that
it was used to form Kurzanov's 1987 idea of what *Avimimus* looked like.
This complex is what was used (admittedly, also by myself) to determine
phylogenetic information, as well as in later restorations. The holotype
appears to be quite distinctive and some of the pelvic material may or may
not belong. The newer specimens will tell us (perhaps) as to what
comprises *Avimimus*. My conjecture was formed from the literature, rather
than in-person observation.

<I say saber-tooth cats. :o[>

  Of course, my bad. Most sabert-like canines in these animals (the
thylacosmilids have 'em too, if I'm not mistaken). They are needed perhaps
to tear with ... they also are present on the longer sabres, but the
short-sabred ones (like *Dinictis*, that terrible weasel) lack 'em.
Interesting...

<*Archaeopteryx*? 0 facets. *Rahonavis*? No sternum preserved.>

  None for *Unenlagia*, either, but the statement was to indicate our lack
of knowledge of needed evolutionary intermediates for support a
distributional comparison. I was using the lack of certainty and data to
show that post-*Sinornithosaurus* dromaeosaurs could easily have lost
several facets in the course of the marginalization of their sternae,
co-developmentally link to the loss of a pectoral plate and reduced flight
structure. We see the same thing in many ratites and flightless
galloanseraeans (inluding *Gastornis*, the Hawai'ian turtle-beaked ducks,
etc.).

off-topic, I wrote:

<<"Na laetha geal m'oige...">>

  and David wrote:

<Could you translate that? :-)>

  "The bright days of my youth..."

  A verse is especially relevant to me ...

  "Na laetha geal m'óige
   Bhí siad lán de dhóchas
   An bealach mór a bhí romham anonn
   Bhí sé i ndán domh go mbéinn, slán, slán."

  "The bright days of my youth
   They were full of hope
   The great journey that was before me then
   Was what was destined to be, bye bye."

=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making leaps 
in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do.  We should all 
learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather than zoom by it.

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