160 million dino fossil shatters bird-dino

in.news.yahoo.com said :

A team of Chinese palaeontologists has found a new species of dinosaur dating back to 160 million years, which bolsters the bird-dino connection, as it exhibits characteristics associated with both dinosaurs and birds.

According to a report in Discovery News, the researchers found a long-legged, toothy, stubby-armed, three-fingered dinosaur that was an important early member of the lineage that includes birds and their closest dinosaur relatives.

Source :
http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20100129/981/tsc-160-mln- yr-old-dinosaur-discovery-bo.html

"shatters"?

SameerPrehistorica, the word 'bolster' means to support, strengthen. So according to the Yahoo article this new dinosaur "strengthens the bird-dino connection."

I'm not sure I agree with that conclusion, though. It doesn't contradict the dino-bird link but Haplocherius actually moves the alvarezsaurs a bit further away from the avialeans than what was previously thought.
Rather it strengthens the argument for an early or middle Jurassic origin for maniraptora. And as a late Jurassic 'missing link' between basal maniraptors and derived alvarezsaurs it is a VERY cool critter!

When thinking of the extremely fast growth rate of dinosaurs, I think of Turkeys. With a little genetic help, steroids, and the right food they grow extremely fast. Although the avian species can grow extremely fast, they are not alone. Some types of fish such as the carp and some whales can grow at rates far exceeding anything else. If I were to put a bet on which species were relatives of the dinosaurs it would contain the fastest maturing species with certain size limiting genes turned off. A gold fish grows to the size of it's environment, maybe small in a fishtank all it's life, but let it go into a huge lake and see what happens. It looses it's color when it grows big and doesn't even look like a goldfish anymore. Diet has so much to do with turning on and off genetic switches that it is scarey. If whatever is locked in rocks disolves extremely fast, it can upset the foodchain rapidly. Everything living is made out of minerals and water, always with a genetic sequencing that allows it to assemble in a specific way. Is the frost that forms on windows related to the ferns that it resembles? metals and minerals seem to grow patterns, This is a big field that I cannot completely study in my lifetime. Where do our fingerprints come from and do they resemble anything else in nature? Did dinosaurs have fingerprints? Chickens and turkeys have patterns in the covering of their feet. Did dinosaurs?

T. rex growth rates by percentage were actually along the same lines as birds. The difference was they started from a heavier position and pretty much grew at that rate for about 75%-80% of their lives