Friday, June 11, 2010

Hesperornithiformes

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesperornis "Hesperornis is an extinct genus of flightless aquatic birds that lived during the Santoni...

More on Timing

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Note the timing of the various creatures in the bird line. Most pterosaurs are replaced by (develop into) enantiornithes etc.  well before...

Who actually had feathers?

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We saw earlier the definition of "non-avian dinosaur": "Dinosauria minus Aves ". Now let's look at which of these s...
2 comments:

What does "non-avian dinosaur" mean?

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The phrase "non-avian dinosaurs" crops up in many articles. What does it mean? As we see below it means Dinosauria minus Aves. I...
2 comments:
Thursday, June 10, 2010

"Essentially Modern Waterfowl" in the Cretaceous

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galloanserae "Fowl were the first neognath lineages to evolve. From the limited fossils that have to...
Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Scapula structure

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Scapulocoracoid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scapulocoracoid The  Scapulocoracoid  is the unit of the  pectoral girdle  that contains th...
Tuesday, June 8, 2010

More about the secondarily flightless birds (3)

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Hesperornithes are Cretaceous Ornithurae. They are an excellent candidate as the ancestor of modern " foot-propelled diving birds...

More about the secondarily flightless birds (2)

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Caudipteryx is an oviraptor - a primitive secondarily-flightless bird. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caudipteryx " Caudipteryx (whi...
Monday, June 7, 2010

More about the secondarily flightless birds (1)

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Support for the idea  that  troodontids and oviraptorids were  secondarily flightless http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19800747 ...

Maniraptors (3)

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microraptorinae#Relationship_with_birds "Martin believes that maniraptorans are secondarily flightless bi...

Maniraptors (2)

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The creatures labeled "Maniraptors" are birds (not dinosaurs). They developed in a line separate from the dinosaurs. Since the ca...
Saturday, June 5, 2010

Maniraptors (1)

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When you look at the diagrams (cladograms) put forward for theropods you see a branch called "maniraptors" which has been tacked ...

The early bird catches the worm

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How early did primitive birds appear? By "primitive bird" I mean feathered and flying, but not yet modern. For example the Enantio...

Putting the Picture Together

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From Top to Bottom: Rhamphorhynchus ! ! Pterodactyl ! ! Primitive Birds (eg. Enantiornithes ) ! ! Cretaceous Flightless Birds Modern Flyin...

Enantiornithes

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Here is an introduction to the Enantiornithes . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enantiornithes "Enantiornithes is an extinct group of pri...

From Pterosaur to Modern Bird

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Here is what I said in the earlier post: In the idea that I am presenting, the advanced pterosaurs (pterodactyls) developed into primitive...
Friday, June 4, 2010

Flightless Birds (5)

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There is very strong support for the idea that the Cretaceous flightless creatures such as the Ornithomimosauria and the Oviraptorosauria  ...

Flightless Birds (4)

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In the idea that I am presenting, the basal pterosaurs developed into primitive flying birds (with  feathers and long bony tails) during the...

Flightless Birds (3)

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As I said, there is an interesting wrinkle to the subject of flightless birds. There are recognized categories of Cretaceous creatures (1...

Flightless Birds (2)

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Note this sentence from the wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flightless_bird " Flightless birds are birds which lack the ...