Re: another dumb question: Terror Birds are not dinosaurs?

[tholtz@geol.umd.edu]

Paula,

If this helps, you can trace some of the character evolution from the base
of Dinosauria to Aves (modern birds) on my class website:

http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/G104/10417what.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/G104/10422ther.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/G104/10423coel.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/G104/10424arch.htm

(I'm actually upgrading these this summer, so the version in the Fall will
be modified. Also, I have obviously had to simplify this because it is for
a 100-level class).

> Oh, thank you  David! THAT'S the kind of thing I really wanted to know.
> We hear so much about how dinosaurs and birds share many morphological
> traits, but the differences -- as  you listed, of those we hear of not
> so much...
>
> Paula

                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