RE: The Croc That Wanted to Be a Dinosaur

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Tim Williams
>
>
> >>Alternate title, from M. Keesey: "Crocs: The Original Dinosaurs"
>
> Turning it around, and looking at archosaur evolution from a less
> dinosaur-centric viewpoint, ornithomimosaurs were shuvosaur-mimics.  After
> all, the suchians got there first.  :-)
>

As I mentioned on Carl Zimmer's blog "The Loom", chatterjeeids are ostrich 
mimic mimic mimics (using the normal [backwards]
paleontological version of "mimicry"). Ratites -> ornithomimosaurs -> 
_Elaphrosaurus_ -> chatterjeeids. (Okay, we don't have
_Elaphrosaurus_'s skull, and chatterjeeids don't have particularly elongate 
hindlimbs, so these two are foreshadows of
ornithomimosaurs and ratites in different ways).

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
        Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
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