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Description
An elaborate April Fool's joke for the Spec team and my blog, in the form of a poorly written press release.

*****

SPEC, 2008 - The recent discovery of Spec's only known stegosaur species has thrown the paleontological world into turmoil, according to a recent press release.

Long-time research by Dr. Avril Poisson and colleagues on the alternate world of Spec have resulted in many discoveries. However, none are as important as the finding of an unassuming little animal, one that nonetheless has massive repercussions on the way we see prehistoric life.

"I mean, this has massive repercussions on the way we see prehistoric life", said Dr. Poisson. "It completely overhauls our knowledge of dinosaurs and their evolution".

The animal, a small and colorful creature, was named Stegopenna avictis. The quick sketch adjacent clearly shows its distinctive features: a narrow jaw filled with sharp teeth, a skinny body, a long, quilled tail, and big, rainbow-hued feathers down its back. Further down, another sketch shows Stegopenna's head - a quite bird-like head, which housed a surprisingly large brain.

"Stegopenna is a very fast, almost hyperactive little animal, like a sort of dinosaurian weasel", said Gerhard Schlumpf, one of Poisson's grad students. "It eats lizards, birds, and small animals, and lives in trees. It even sings to its mate".

However, those observations are of no consequence compared to Stegopenna's relationships. Diagnosed as a stegosaur, it is a far cry from the stereotype of big, lumbering herbivores with brains the size of peanuts.

"Stegopenna represents the last extant stegosaur species on Spec", said Poisson, boldly. "Not only that, but it's also the closest thing we have to the common ancestor of birds and dinosaurs".

Poisson and her colleagues, unlike most paleontologists, do not believe birds evolved from maniraptorian dinosaurs, like the raptors in Jurassic Park. Instead, they claim that the evidence supports their hypothesis that birds evolved from ornithischians, a group which included stegosaurs.

"The evidence is very clear on this one", said Poisson. "Early on in their evolution, some basal stegosaurs became smaller, arboreal, and carnivorous, and their plates, initially display structures, became feathers. Birds obviously evolved from this stegosaurian sidebranch, and later produced dromaeosaurs and other maniraptors, which are actually ornithischians. Stegopenna is the last survivor of those basal avestegosaurs".

Other paleontologists were not amused. Dr. Marjanovic, of the Spec Institute for Dinosaurian Studies, was one of the first critics. "They interpreted it all wrong", he fumed. "At best, it's a basal archosaurian, or something that somehow evolved to looked vaguely stegosaurian. Besides, the suggestion that stegosaurs evolved into birds is absurd". His colleague, Prof. Tobin, was equally skeptical. "What next - scaly ornithischians in North America?" he said, icily.

Naturally, Stegopenna has stirred up debate in other fields. Prominent creationist Murgatroyd McNutt was one of the first to gloat over it. "Scientists can't even agree among each other", he said. "No matter what evilutionists say, birds did not evolve from dinosaurs". Arab creationist Ahbal Nahs echoed his view, comparing the silhouette of Stegopenna to well-chewed bubblegum.

Meanwhile, noted science-blogger Darren Naish reportedly believed that Stegopenna was distantly related to the Rhinogradentia, by way of stem-haematotherm. The results of his extensive study have yet to come out, but chances are amphisbaenians aren't included in the analysis.

Regardless, the majority of scientific opinion seems to be against birds-as-stegosaurs. But none of this furore seemed to faze Dr. Poisson. "We've got Stegopenna", she said. "We win. Nur nurny nurrr". She also adds that even her critics had nothing but positive feedback to give, providing a quote from Dr. Marjanovic saying that "the discovery of Stegopenna is a pure, unadulterated" stroke of genius.

The results of Poisson et al.'s research will come out soon, published by the Piltdown Press.

*****

Description
An elaborate April Fool's joke for the Spec team and my blog, in the form of a poorly written press release.

*****

SPEC, 2008 - The recent discovery of Spec's only known stegosaur species has thrown the paleontological world into turmoil, according to a recent press release.

Long-time research by Dr. Avril Poisson and colleagues on the alternate world of Spec have resulted in many discoveries. However, none are as important as the finding of an unassuming little animal, one that nonetheless has massive repercussions on the way we see prehistoric life.

"I mean, this has massive repercussions on the way we see prehistoric life", said Dr. Poisson. "It completely overhauls our knowledge of dinosaurs and their evolution".

The animal, a small and colorful creature, was named Stegopenna avictis. The quick sketch adjacent clearly shows its distinctive features: a narrow jaw filled with sharp teeth, a skinny body, a long, quilled tail, and big, rainbow-hued feathers down its back. Further down, another sketch shows Stegopenna's head - a quite bird-like head, which housed a surprisingly large brain.

"Stegopenna is a very fast, almost hyperactive little animal, like a sort of dinosaurian weasel", said Gerhard Schlumpf, one of Poisson's grad students. "It eats lizards, birds, and small animals, and lives in trees. It even sings to its mate".

However, those observations are of no consequence compared to Stegopenna's relationships. Diagnosed as a stegosaur, it is a far cry from the stereotype of big, lumbering herbivores with brains the size of peanuts.

"Stegopenna represents the last extant stegosaur species on Spec", said Poisson, boldly. "Not only that, but it's also the closest thing we have to the common ancestor of birds and dinosaurs".

Poisson and her colleagues, unlike most paleontologists, do not believe birds evolved from maniraptorian dinosaurs, like the raptors in Jurassic Park. Instead, they claim that the evidence supports their hypothesis that birds evolved from ornithischians, a group which included stegosaurs.

"The evidence is very clear on this one", said Poisson. "Early on in their evolution, some basal stegosaurs became smaller, arboreal, and carnivorous, and their plates, initially display structures, became feathers. Birds obviously evolved from this stegosaurian sidebranch, and later produced dromaeosaurs and other maniraptors, which are actually ornithischians. Stegopenna is the last survivor of those basal avestegosaurs".

Other paleontologists were not amused. Dr. Marjanovic, of the Spec Institute for Dinosaurian Studies, was one of the first critics. "They interpreted it all wrong", he fumed. "At best, it's a basal archosaurian, or something that somehow evolved to looked vaguely stegosaurian. Besides, the suggestion that stegosaurs evolved into birds is absurd". His colleague, Prof. Tobin, was equally skeptical. "What next - scaly ornithischians in North America?" he said, icily.

Naturally, Stegopenna has stirred up debate in other fields. Prominent creationist Murgatroyd McNutt was one of the first to gloat over it. "Scientists can't even agree among each other", he said. "No matter what evilutionists say, birds did not evolve from dinosaurs". Arab creationist Ahbal Nahs echoed his view, comparing the silhouette of Stegopenna to well-chewed bubblegum.

Meanwhile, noted science-blogger Darren Naish reportedly believed that Stegopenna was distantly related to the Rhinogradentia, by way of stem-haematotherm. The results of his extensive study have yet to come out, but chances are amphisbaenians aren't included in the analysis.

Regardless, the majority of scientific opinion seems to be against birds-as-stegosaurs. But none of this furore seemed to faze Dr. Poisson. "We've got Stegopenna", she said. "We win. Nur nurny nurrr". She also adds that even her critics had nothing but positive feedback to give, providing a quote from Dr. Marjanovic saying that "the discovery of Stegopenna is a pure, unadulterated" stroke of genius.

The results of Poisson et al.'s research will come out soon, published by the Piltdown Press.

*****