Dr. Norell said that Dr. Russell was an experienced dinosaur researcher with a reputation for cautious work. But others in the field will need to evaluate all the data from the analysis, he said, not just what is being published now. A report of the discovery is being published in today's issue of the journal Science.
''All of this will undergo critical review in the next couple of years,'' Dr. Norell said of the immediate findings and their potential implications. ''We will just have to wait and see how it shakes out.''