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To: PatrickHenry
The origin of birds from this group is further supported by this find.

Featherlike coverings were probably pretty widespread in at least the smaller-sized theropod dinosaurs. So far, only a few fossilization sites have allowed the kind of preservation which would let us see such detail. This paucity of feather evidence has allowed skepticism of the whole idea, but here's another example for a subgroup not previously found with feathers. The more subgroups that have them, the farther back down the tree you put the common ancestor that first grew them.

One reason this matters, the somewhat older Archaeopteryx from limestone deposits in Europe had a dinosaurian skeleton (apparently closely related to some of the Liaoning China species) but a very impressive set of feathers. Today's find makes it easier to state that many of Archy's contemporaries were also feathered. (We just don't have well-enough preserved fossils for all of them.)

20 posted on 10/06/2004 2:27:50 PM PDT by VadeRetro (A self-reliant conservative citizenry is a better bet than the subjects of an overbearing state. -MS)
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To: VadeRetro
The origin of birds from this group is further supported by this find.

Italicized by mistake and not a quote of anything. An attempted topic sentence:

"The origin of birds from the theropod group is further supported by this find."

23 posted on 10/06/2004 2:33:33 PM PDT by VadeRetro (A self-reliant conservative citizenry is a better bet than the subjects of an overbearing state. -MS)
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