From: davis@kahaku.go.jp (Paul Davis)
Mickey - I couldn't let this [advertisement for Chinese bird fossils] go without commenting. One of my research areas are these Asian birds and whilst not wanting to get into the commercial debate I thought I should at least provide correct scientific information regarding these specimens.
>Recently a small handful of extremely rare lower Cretaceous or
possibly
>upper Jurassic fossilized birds have been discovered.
I have personally seen and photographed just under 40 specimens of these specimens - they are not rare - in fact they are reasonably abundant and more are turning up as the locality is being commercially worked for these specimens. There are rarer bird specimens from this site including enantiornithines and some other "weird" things. My decision to track down these specimens is to provide a pictorial record for bona fide researchers in this field before the specimens are 'lost' on the commercial market and as such I have given copies of these photographs away free to colleagues. I was able to do this by posing as a potential buyer to dealers here in Japan (which is the main smuggling route for these specimens).
>These 139 million year old birds have been brought to America
from
>the Liaoning Province of China. These new birds have been
named
>Confuciusornis and are archaeraptors.
Archaeraptors ???!!! I think there is no such thing and this is marketing hype.
>They morphologically resemble Archaeopteryx and Hesperonis.
They don't resemble Archaeopteryx or Hesperornis and are very distinct (again marketing hype using the names of the only Mesozoic birds they know)
>The claws and head are very similar to terrestrial raptors.
They are pretty normal avian claws and don't overly resemble 'raptors' (there is no such thing).
> They have 3 wing claws probably used for climbing trees.
Yes three clawed manus; climbing trees -maybe.
>The wings (complete with feather impressions inlaid in the
matrix)
>were used for gliding and due to the hollow bones may have been
one
>of the first to achieve extended flight.
All specimens I have seen do indeed have a complete compliment of feathers both on the body and wings. For overly simple ideas on flight see the millions of postings on this newsgroup.
>These birds lived near water and had teeth that were probably used to
eat
>insects and small fish.
NO! One of the defining characters of Confuciusornis is that it is edentulous [toothless] along with an easily recognized large fenestra in the humeral head.
>They are thought to be part of the link between dinosaurs and
modern
>day birds and may be directly related to Archaeopteryx.
Systematic position is unsure and work at present is being carried out on the cladistics of these early birds.
>If interested in more information contact me quick, there are less
then
>a dozen in existence and are highly sought after.
See above.
If any one is interested in more science info on these specimens or the legal standing of purchasing them for museums (their very illegal BTW and the Chinese government has the right to reclaim them) or any information on what the palaeornithological community is doing to stop the traffic in these fossils then please reply off line (after all this is a dino list).
From: steve.cole@genie.com
[Confuciusornis is] similar to Archy in most respects except two: