Re: Feather Flap

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Mickey Mortimer wrote:

> If people like Scott are right and taxa like Archaeopteryx and Microraptor 
> with unreversed halluces were still terrestrial, the most basal arboreal 
> maniraptorans would be jeholornithids and omnivoropterygids.  The latter 
> clades preserve seeds and gastroliths in their body cavities, indicating at 
> least partially herbivorous habits.

Were the climbing/perching abilities of jeholornithids or omnivoropterygids 
necessarily superior to those of archaeopterygids or microraptorans?  It was 
my impression that they weren't (or at least, not by much).

I might be over-interpreting what you said, but I'm not sure that the 
presence of seeds or gastroliths in the body cavity is a reliable indicator 
of arboreal habits.  _Jinfengopteryx_ (certainly non-avian, and possibly 
troodontid) may also preserve seeds in its body cavity, depending upon the 
identity of those orange-ish "oval structures".  Ji et al. (2005) suggest 
they might be "seeds or nuts".

I guess you mean gastroliths might only be indicative of herbivorous habits 
in avian taxa, given that gastroliths are also documented for _Caudipteryx_, 
_Sinornithomimus_, _Baryonyx_, _Lourinhanosaurus_, and some other other 
non-avian theropods that I've forgotten.

Cheers

Tim

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