Re: diminutive dinosaurs

Mickey Mortimer (Mickey_Mortimer111 <at> msn.com) wrote:

<The known specimens are smaller than Parvicursor (130 mm, ~6 g vs. ~390
mm, ~160 g), but are not mature based on the large head and eyes, unfused
neurocentral sutures, unfused sacrum, and perhaps poorly formed remiges.>

  While large head and eyes seem to occur typically among rather small
birds and mammals today, relative to their trunk length say, or large eyes
indicative of a possible nocturnal habit despite apparent fusion of some
braincase elements in *Scansoriopteryx,* there are also what appear to be
poorly-defined margins between bones that indicate incomplete limb growth.
These animals may be younger than subadults, and could be only about 1/3
or less adult size (but that's pushing predictive ability fairly far).

=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making leaps in the face of adversity, that a
simple skip is so hard to do.  We should all learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather than
zoom by it.

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)

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