Kulindadromeus "feathers" questioned by Theagarten Lingham-Soliar

[Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com>]

Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com


In the new issue of Science:


Theagarten Lingham-Soliar (2014)
Comment on “A Jurassic ornithischian dinosaur from Siberia with both
feathers and scales”
Science  346 (6208): 434
DOI: 10.1126/science.1259983
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/346/6208/434.2.abstract

Godefroit et al. (Reports, 25 July 2014, p. 451) reported scales and
feathers, including “basal plates,” in an ornithischian dinosaur.
Their arguments against the filaments being collagen fibers are not
supported because of a fundamental misinterpretation of such
structures and underestimation of their size. The parsimonious
explanation is that the filaments are support fibers in association
with badly degraded scales and that they do not represent early
feather stages.

==

Pascal Godefroit, Sofia M. Sinitsa, Danielle Dhouailly, Yuri L.
Bolotsky, Alexander V. Sizov, Maria E. McNamara, Michael J. Benton,
and Paul Spagna (2014)
Response to Comment on "A Jurassic ornithischian dinosaur from Siberia
with both feathers and scales".
Science 346 (6208): 434
DOI: 10.1126/science.1260146
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/346/6208/434.3.abstract

Lingham-Soliar questions our interpretation of integumentary
structures in the Middle-Late Jurassic ornithischian dinosaur
Kulindadromeus as feather-like appendages and alternatively proposes
that the compound structures observed around the humerus and femur of
Kulindadromeus are support fibers associated with badly degraded
scales. We consider this hypothesis highly unlikely because of the
taphonomy and morphology of the preserved structures.