Book Progress #34

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As ever, I didn't get as much done as I wanted to today, but I still added a few more pages. I would have accomplished more, but in my research I came across a few resources that had previously eluded me. A few (like a collection of papers by Lawrence Lambe, including his description of Gorgosaurus) were only tangentially related to the project, but others (like William Beebe's paper on the hypothetical bird ancestor "Tetrapteryx") are going to be essential to what I'm writing. I even found a bit of paleo-fiction relating to the urvogel, so I've got plenty of resources to mine.

Although I was somewhat concerned there was going to be a substantial gap in the chapter about thoughts on bird origins espoused between 1870 and 1925, I have found enough resources to fill in the blank spots. I still have to learn a little more about the rise and fall of the "pseudosuchian" ancestry for birds, but there will definitely be some information included in the chapter that I have not seen published elsewhere.

I am trying not to be too arrogant about this project, but I can honestly say that there is no book I know of that is quite like the one I'm writing. Hopefully it will actually make it onto shelves someday!

Here is the latest Wordle for the dinosaurs/birds chapter;

title="Wordle: New Birds Chapter"> src="http://wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/194193/New_Birds_Chapter"
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For previous book updates, see the "Books" archive.

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