Re: More on Argentavis

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

----- Original Message -----
From: "evelyn sobielski" <koreke77@yahoo.de>
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2007 5:29 AM

> Also, fossil evidence beats
> inference from any kind of data hands-down. It's rare
> that a fossil say "ain't so", but if it does, that's
> that.

The problem here is the lack of fossils. There are no known Paleogene 
ratites except for rheas (*Diogenornis*, Paleocene) and a few flightless 
birds from the Eocene of Europe, at least some of which could be ostriches 
(notably *Palaeotis*).

Incidentally, if at least *Palaeotis* is an ostrich, it probably fits the 
proposal by Cooper et al. (2001) that the ostriches evolved in India in the 
Paleocene, then reached Laurasia at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary, and then 
entered Africa around the Oligocene-Miocene boundary. However, this still 
doesn't justify the calibration point Cooper et al. used, as long as it 
remains possible that the ostriches lost their flight ability only in India 
or even later.