Hoatzin Hatchlin'

A long while ago I wrote a post about the possibility of genetically engineering (not cloning) a dinosaur. One of the creatures that I cited as having vestigial primitive characteristics was the Hoatzin, a bird that hatches with digits on its fore-arms capable of grasping branches. The digits are clawed and i always assumed that there were three of them because they are always describd as un-fused. The good folks in the CT lab at the University of Texas at Austin have scanned a juvenile Hoatzin. My misconsections are shattered. Rather than being three separate, unfused digits, the individual phalanges are not fused as they are in adults, enabling them to curl their fingers. However, digits II and III (not III and IV as Feducia would have us believe) are still syndactylous (fused to one another). Oh well, I suppose this would be why my genetic monstrocities never developed proper hands. Oh well, back to the secret lab to try something else.