Re: Dr. Holtz' secret: Buitreraptor gonzalezorum

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

Let me start by saying that I feel sort of like winning the triple 
jackpot!!!

> <<Rather than originating during the Cretaceous, dromaeosaurs can now be
> traced back to the Jurassic, possibly as far back as 180 million years
> ago.>>
>
> Um, Upper Jurassic dromie fossils had already been found.  This certainly
> applies to the Kimmeridgian Guimarota locality in Portugal.

Yup, and some of those teeth are "dromaeosaurine", which means that they 
are not only inside Dromaeosaurinae-as-found-tomorrow, but more derived 
than *Saurornitholestes*. So _a clade inside Dromaeosaurinae_ can be traced 
to the Kimmeridgian = middle Late Jurassic!

("Velociraptorine" teeth are also present in Guimarota, but that morphology 
seems to be plesiomorphic... right?)

> I seem to recall there's further material from the Morrison Formation.

This is probably what HP Scott Hartman will present as an impressively 
complete troodontid at the SVP meeting.

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