Re: the first bird

["T. Michael Keesey" <keesey@gmail.com>]

On 8/28/05, Ian Paulsen <birdbooker@zipcon.net> wrote:
> HI:
>  IF Archaeopteryx isn't really the first bird ancestor then what would a
> Protoavis (first bird) look like?

It would have looked like _Archaeopteryx_.

_Protoavis_, incidentally, is a real taxon (although possibly a
chimera of non-avialan parts)."Proavis" is the term coined(?) by
Heilman for the hypothetical bird ancestor (although he considered it
non-dinosaurian).

—Mike Keesey