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Preface
The 4th International Meeting of the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution
(SAPE) was held at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C, 4-7 June 1996, as an
official part of the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Smithsonian. Sessions for
papers were held at the S. Dillon Ripley Center the first two days of the meeting.
A very successful workshop organized by Sylvia Hope was held during the afternoon of
the second day at the National Museum of Natural History. Participants examined and
compared fossils of latest Cretaceous and early Tertiary birds, resulting in numerous valuable
insights and revelations.
A field trip on June 6th to the Miocene exposures of Calvert Cliffs along Chesapeake
Bay was followed by a visit to the Calvert Marine Museum (CMM) at Solomon's, Maryland,
and culminated with an outdoor crab feast. All of this took place under the most ideal
imaginable conditions, thanks to fine weather and the careful planning of our hosts for the
day at CMM.
The final day was devoted to a symposium and roundtable on Mesozoic birds and their
origins, organized by Peter Wellnhofer. The roundtable brought out animated discussion of
the more intractable issues that invest this subject today, but these discussions were conducted
totally without rancor or animosity and in a spirit of genuine collegiality.
The SAPE meeting's tradition of international composition was fully upheld by the
fourth meeting, in which there were registrants from at least 14 countries and 18 states of
the United States. To maintain international participation, the Society has successfully
been able to alter the venue of its quadrennial meetings among continents. At the business
meeting in Washington, D.C, an offer was extended by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology
of the Academica Sinica to hold the fifth SAPE meeting, in the year 2000, in
Beijing, China. After some thoughtful discussion, the invitation was accepted.
No matter whether the 21st century begins in the year 2000 or 2001, the Washington
SAPE meeting was the last to be held in a year beginning with "19." Thus, the title of this
volume suggested itself. It is worth reflecting on the fact that during the last quarter of the
20th century there was probably as much or more learned about the fossil history of birds
than there was throughout the rest of history. The papers that are collected herein reflect
the continued vigor and diversity of this line of investigation around the world. Now the
legacy of SAPE is passed to a new continent in a new century. May its light be undiminished.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.—The local committee on arrangements for the Washington
meeting consisted of Helen James, Storrs Olson, Michael Gottfried, Pamela Rasmussen,
and Ralph Chapman. That the meeting took place at all is due entirely to the persistence,
optimism, and insistence of Helen James, who, through an oppressive winter of government
shutdowns and dreadful weather, and with little prospect of finding sufficient funding,
kept communications open and plans progressing when others only despaired.
Direct funding for the meeting came from the 150th Anniversary Program Committee
and the Office of the Director, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Travel subsidy for some of the participants was provided by the Office of Fellowships
and Grants, Smithsonian Institution; the International Science Foundation; and the
University of Kansas. Arrangements for the field trip and the crab feast were made by
Michael Gottfried of the Calvert Marine Museum, cosponsor of the meeting.
In order to spread some of the burden of the editorial process for the present volume, I
divided the majority of the submitted papers among four associate editors, who were responsible
for reading and commenting on manuscripts and soliciting additional reviews.
Of necessity, much of the task of refereeing fell largely to members of SAPE. The follow-
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