protoavis

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Related to protoavis: archeopteryx

protoavis

(ˌprəʊtəʊˈeɪvɪs)

(Palaeontology) a bird-like creature from the late Triassic period

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Noun

protoavis - most primitive avian type known; extinct bird of the Triassic having bird-like jaw and hollow limbs and breastbone with dinosaur-like tail and hind limbs

bird - warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings

genus Protoavis - extinct primitive birds of the Triassic period; 70 million years before archaeopteryx

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In this study, the author applies stasis theory to a paleontological argument involving a controversial fossil, "Protoavis texensis." Discourse related to the controversy is examined under the lens of the "staseis," and the application of stasis theory to visual components of argumentative texts associated with scientific communication is explored.

Stasis Theory and Paleontology Discourse

A well-known paleontologist, he owns finder's rights to the world's only known specimens of Protoavis -- reputed to be the oldest bird ever discovered.

Five years after he first found the fossils (SN: 8/16/86, p.103), Chatterjee is now launching Protoavis' formal scientific debut through publication of a detailed monograph issued in June in the PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.

Therein lies the rub, for most other researchers don't see a bird when they look at Protoavis. And that fact must give Chatterjee pause.

The lonely bird: claims of the earliest avian fossil launch a paleontologic flap

According to paleontologist John Ostromat Yale University, "the material is so fragmentary that the identification [as a bird] cannot be certified, but it certainly looks as though that's the right interpretation." If so, then the fossils, to which Chatterjee has given the genus name Protoavis (ancestral bird), add credence to the notion that birds originally arose from dinosaurs.

"The wing structures of Protoavis are so well developed, there's no doubt it could fly," he adds.

In Ostrom's view there is not enoughfossil evidence to say that Protoavis was indeed more advanced.