Re: New Jeholornis specimen

["Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Nick Gardner wrote:

> An interesting note from the paper is that Larry Martin seems to consider 
> _Microraptor_ to be a flightless bird.  I wonder if that was in reference 
> to _M. zhaoianus_ or _M. gui_.

My guess is _M. gui_ (=?_Cryptovolans pauli_).  I suspect that this is a 
good example of the idea that if a fossil shows unambiguous feathers, then 
it must be a bird.  Thus, if a dromaeosaurid or oviraptorosaur turns up with 
closed-vaned feathers on the limbs and tail, then it must be a secondarily 
flightless bird.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not disputing the very real possibility that 
dromaeosaurids or oviraptorosaurs are secondarily flightless.  However, the 
practice of shoehorning dinosaurs such as _Microraptor_ and _Caudipteryx_ 
into the Aves simply because they come clothed in feathers is getting a 
little silly.  Recent fossil discoveries have fortified the hypothesis that 
birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs, with _Microraptor_ and friends lying 
close to the point of divergence.  Czerkas' alernative "hypothesis" that 
birds and other feathered maniraptorans (including dromaeosaurs) are not 
theropods at all, but represent a lineage independent of other theropods, 
has an air of desperation to it.




Tim



of RABID (" 'raptors are birds in disguise ") - the

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