Re: [Re: [Re: Origin of feathers]]

[archosaur@usa.net]

owner-dinosaur@usc.edu wrote:
> -----Original Message--From: archosaur@usa.net <Date: 09 April 1998 08:17
> >
> >What is a feather. To put it generally a feather is simply a modified
> scale.
> 
> I thought it had been decided it wasn't.  (Dinolist passim.)
> 
> JJ
------------------------

Really? That's news to me (but then again many things are)

I always figured feathers to just be modified scales. Especially considering 
their placement on the body (shingle like) and their composition. 

Dr. Hongyan Zou and Dr. Lee Niswander's experiment with webbed toes also seems 
to indicate that feathers are linked with scales. 

When they had the feet in chicks retain the webbing the side effect was that 
the scutes on the feet (the only true scales I know of on a bird) turned to 
feathers. 

Interestingly enough it seems to indicate that scutes are modified feathers. 
Truly a strange turn of events. This would also make feathers the primitive 
characteristic and mean that feathers might have been found in other 
archosaurs. 

When was it stated that feathers weren't scale modifications?

Archosaur J

All the world to see a feathered crocodile.


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