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Interesting and unusual trace fossil

Posted by AndyFarke on 05 Mar 2009 at 05:21 GMT

I've rated this article 4/5 for insight - although the issue of forelimb posture has been largely resolved for theropods for some time, little work has focused on the base of the tree and the prints presented here are novel and important pieces of independent evidence.

I give a 4/5 for reliability - the conclusions are pretty solid, although the issue of other alleged manus prints in theropods clearly needs additional investigation. This is not to say that the authors' conclusions are unreliable, only that further study is needed (per the guidelines for rating papers currently employed by PLoS ONE).

And, 4/5 for style - a well-written and well-illustrated paper!