Re: Mesozoic snow?

[Dora Smith <villandra@austin.rr.com>]

The way I understand it, later lines of therapods that definitely all had
feathers diverged in the Jurassic.   Maybe even the late triassic.

That doesn't quite require that the common ancestor had feathers, but it's
unlikely that it didn't.   Especially since the therapods that lacked
feathers were larger, which is consistent with the notion that they once had
"fur" and lost it.

Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, Texas
villandra@austin.rr.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>
To: <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>; <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 2:53 PM
Subject: RE: Mesozoic snow?


> > From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> > Tim Williams
> >
> > >The earliest undisputedly feathered dinosaur is Archaeopteryx, if I
recall
> > >correctly, from the Late Jurassic.
> >
> > Yep - with the emphasis on 'undisputed'.  We have direct proof of
feathers
> > in _Archaeopteryx_, but not for any other pre-Cretaceous theropod (or
> > anything else, for that matter)
>
> Pedopenna is definitely feathered, and *might* be from the Middle
Jurassic. (Indeed, most of the Chinese paleos and geologists I
> have spoken to are very certain about that date).
>
> Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
> Vertebrate Paleontologist
> Department of Geology Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
> University of Maryland College Park Scholars
> Mailing Address:
> Building 237, Room 1117
> College Park, MD  20742
>
> http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
> http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
> Phone: 301-405-4084 Email: tholtz@geol.umd.edu
> Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661 Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796
>