Birdlike dinosaur boasted opposable fingers

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

"Birdlike dinosaur boasted opposable fingers"
10:45 29 January 2007, NewScientist.com news service
Jeff Hecht 


Chalk up another evolutionary first for dinosaurs: Bambiraptor evolved 
opposable fingers 75 million years ago, long before our ancestors developed 
opposable thumbs. 

Phil Senter at Lamar State College in Orange, Texas, US, made the discovery 
while investigating the arm movements that could have been made by a 
dromeosaur called Bambiraptor... 

...Working with models of the bones, Senter found that Bambiraptor would 
have been able to hold prey with both arms, or use its long arms to bring 
objects to its mouth. But he was surprised to find that it would have been 
possible for the dinosaur to put the tips of the outer two of its three 
fingers together, the way a human can touch the tip of the thumb to the tip 
of the third finger â a trait Senter says is not known in any other 
dinosaur... 

For more see:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11047-birdlike-dinosaur-boasted-opposa 
ble-fingers.html
(includes an illustration of the manus in action) 

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Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist         http://www.geocities.com/dannsdinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia        http://heretichides.soffiles.com
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