Protopenguins and pterosaurs

[Richard and Jo Cowen <cowen@blueoakfarm.com>]

Nick Pharris nailed the flaw. IF you assert first that penguins and  
storks diverged at 62 Ma, OF COURSE you end with the conclusion that  
there were Cretaceous penguins, and other neornithine lineages. And  
that gets you into all sorts of wild speculation. For example, I  
didn't know until I read their paper that the decline of small  
pterosaurs in the late Cretaceous was because they were eaten by  
raptors (and I don't mean velociraptors, I mean Falconiformes!!!). No  
matter that we don't have a single Cretaceous falconiform in the  
fossil record. But read the paper for yourself: it is alleged to be  
open-access.

mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/msj124v1

I hope Euan Fordyce is squirming with embarrassment at what his co- 
authors have written above his name!!

Cheers

Richard Cowen