Archaeopterygid bird from Chinan

[Ken Kinman]

Okay,
      Just to please you, let's say Archaeopterygidae originated somewhere in Eurasia (no fossils known elsewhere).  Divide that roughly into thirds: (1) Europe; (2) western Asia (40 to 95 degrees longitude); and (3) eastern Asia (east of 95 degrees).  I would assign eastern Asia as having the highest probably of containing the center of origin, western Asia as having moderate probability; and Europe with lowest probability of the three.  North America would be a distant fourth and very unlikely, and Gondwanaland (incl. India) would be the least likely (negligible probability).  Is that empirical enough?
  ---Ken

****************************************************
From:         John Grehan <jgrehan at SCIENCEBUFF.ORG>
Subject:      Re: Archaeopterygid bird from China
Comments: To: Ken Kinman <kinman2 at YAHOO.COM>

> John,
>   Well, if you read both of my posts, you will see that my hypothesis is that Archaeopterygidae arose in "Asia", which is hardly > a restricted area.

It is restricted in that it is a smaller area than the total range of the group.  If one said that the group originated over a range encompassing (but not necessarily restricted to) the current records I would be inclined to see that as something empirical.
John