Re: "Dinosaurs Died Within Hours After Asteroid Hit Earth..."

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

Mickey Mortimer (Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com) wrote:
 
<Even if one excludes the Solnhofen specimen as Wellnhoferia, the
Eichstatt specimen is still much smaller than the London specimen, which
shows no evidence for belonging to a different species (Senter and Robins,
2003).>

  Thanks to Mickey for clarifying that it was the _London_ and not the
_Eichstätt_ specimen that is being considered a different species by
Senter and Robins (2003) from *Wellnhoferia.* I'd like to point out that
the London specimen is the type specimen for *Archaeopteryx
lithographica,* so it cannot be a different species from itself, but is
considered a different species from *Wellnhoferia.* The Eichstätt
specimen, one of the smallest specimens, has been considered a different
species, as well.

  Yes, the London specimen is one of the largest specimens , but this does
not invalidate my point: 1) The Solnhofen specimen, the largest, is larger
by a few degrees in all directions than the London and is considered a
separate species by some; 2) the smallest specimens have been given their
own species at some point in history, from the Haarlem to the Eichstätt
specimens, leaving the mid-sized to near-largest in their own complex of
species; 3) the Solnhofen specimen lacks plumage preserved; 4) any of the
mid-sized to smaller specimens can be different species, given "adult"
plumage in most.

  As an example of this "size may be indicative of taxonomy" hypothesis
(not neccessarily favored by myself):

  The Solnhofen specimen is the largest (*Wellnhoferia grandis*), followed
by the London (*Archaeopteryx lithographica* [= *Griphornis
longicaudatus*]), the lost Maxberg specimen, the incomplete Haarlem
specimen (*Pterodactylus crassipes*), the nearly-perfectly preserved
Berlin specimen, the arms and legs of the Teyler specimen, rediscovered by
Ostrom, the Münich (or Solnhofener Aktien-Verein) specimen (*Archaeopteryx
bavarica*), and the tiniest of them all, the Eichstätt specimen
(*Jurapteryx recurva*).

  The largest and smallest have been considered different species, some
based on what others, including Elzanowski and Wellnhofer, considered
ontogenetic features; this leaves the mid-size specimens to be largely
unique in retaining their reference to *Archaeopteryx* after they had been
recovered and described, save the Haarlem specimen.

  Cheers,

=====
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.

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)


        
                
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