Re: Dino/Birds? was Mesozoic snow?

[Mickey Mortimer <Mickey_Mortimer111@msn.com>]

Andrew Simpson wrote-

> I am shocked. We continously being told that all these
> theropods are feathered. The artists are putting
> feathers on everything thesedays. But you seem to be
> saying that we have only two theropods with proof of
> feathers?
>
> Madness.
>
> What is up with all those Dino-Birds in china. Are
> they flat out birds or is there some cross into the
> dino realm?

Tim and Tom were only discussing dinosaurs earlier than the Late Jurassic.
We have many non-bird theropods with preserved feathers-

Dilong paradoxus
Sinosauropteryx prima
Shuvuuia deserti
Yixianosaurus longimanus
Beipiaosaurus inexpectus
Protarchaeopteryx robusta
Caudipteryx zoui (=C. dongi)
Pedopenna daohugouensis
Jinfengopteryx elegans
Sinornithosaurus millenii
Cryptovolans pauli
Microraptor zhaoianus
Microraptor gui
Scansoriopteryx heilmanni

All of these except for Shuvuuia are from China.  And much like we can
safely assume prehistoric mammals had fur, we can assume other related
dinosaurs (basically every coelurosaur, except maybe large tyrannosaurs)
were feathered too.  None of the above are birds, except perhaps
Scansoriopteryx and Pedopenna, assuming you don't call Velociraptor a bird.
There are also a lot of actual birds from the same Chinese deposits, ranging
from primitive things like Shenzhouraptor to advanced ones like Yanornis.

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