Re: dinosaur anatomy

["Ilja Nieuwland" <I.J.J.Nieuwland@let.rug.nl>]

> In a message dated 97-12-08 03:10:05 EST, JSeward wrote:

> form of insulation would be naturally endothermic. Could it be that feathers
> had the primary use of flight and the secondary use of insulation for those
> birds? If so, that seems to indicate something about the environment of that
> time. The Jurassic environment was hot and tropical, right? So maybe
> endothermic metabolisms were not needed for those birds (and dinosaurs by
> extension).
>
That makes the *symmetrical* feathers on _Protoarchaeopteryx_ a bit 
difficult to fathom, doesn't it? 

Just my 2c.

Ilja Nieuwland