[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index]

Re: The big story at SVP



On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 03:08:28PM +0200, Andreas Johansson scripsit:
 
> On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 2:59 PM, Jeff Hecht <jeff@jeffhecht.com>
> wrote:
> > The big story from Bristol is a feathered troodon from China older
> > than Archaeopteryx:
> >
> > <http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17855-oldest-feathered-dinosaur-is-earliest-bird.html>
> >
> > It's from a paper Xu Xing gave this morning that's listed in the SVP
> > abstracts. (I'm not there - another New Scientist writer covered the
> > story).
>
> Has Feduccia gone BAD, or are they misrepresenting him in the final
> paragraph?

He presumably thinks it *is* an early bird, in the no-bird-is-a-
dinosaur sense, and is being quoted at shorter length than what he said.
(Note that the descriptive text about his statement only makes sense if
he thinks the specimen is not a dinosaur.)

Anybody done a big-feathers-on-the-hind-limb aerodynamic analysis?  Some
current large raptors have extensive thigh feathers that appear to act
as streamlining when they lower their legs in flight for predatory
purposes.  I can see that being of benefit to a cursorial biped, and
there has to be an on-ramp to the evolution of the feature before it was
aerodynamically useful in a flight sense.

-- Graydon