Re: Final proof of dinosaur endothermy?

[Mickey Mortimer <Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com>]

Vladimír Socha wrote-

> I'm not sure if this was already posted, probably wasn't. In the June
edition of a (czech) scientific magazine 21. stoleti (21st Century) is
interesting article by paleontologist Martin Kundrat and writer Jaroslav
Mares dedicated to the long forgotten fossil foot imprint of a sitting
dinosaur located in the Pratt musem (?) in Amherst, MA. Its catalogue number
is PMNH-EHC 1/7. The full article will be presented in July's edition of
Journal of Experimental Zoology (Part B: Molecular and Developmental
Evolution). There is not much info, but obviously the find shows imprints of
a primitive feathers located in the pelvic area of sitting theropod. Yeah,
BTW, the find is 200 Ma old. There are also preserved imprints of a rain
drops falling down from the feathery integument of the animal. "Feathers" of
this dinosaur are very similar to those of an ostrich fetus before hatching.
It has second stage of a feather development according to Plum's scale (?).
This is animal with a feathery
>  integument 55 Ma older then Archie.

This Early Jurassic sitting grallatorid imprint turned out to have an
imprint of sliding vegetation, not feathers.  Identical imprints are found
throughout the formation, and associated in non-sensical ways with other
footprints as well.  See http://www.cmnh.org/dinoarch/2001Jan/msg00345.html

Mickey Mortimer
Undergraduate, Earth and Space Sciences
University of Washington
The Theropod Database - http://students.washington.edu/eoraptor/Home.html