Re: SJ Mercury News: Caudipteryx

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 98-06-24 13:24:23 EDT, bettyc@flyinggoat.com writes:

<< In an interview, Feduccia cited several anatomical disparities between
 dinosaurs and birds and the difficulty of explaining how animals could
 have developed flight from the ground up, rather than from trees
 down, as reasons for doubt about a direct ancestral relationship
 between dinosaurs and birds. He suggested that the long feathers on
 these species could indicate that these animals had once been able to
 fly, but had evolved into flightless birds. >>

Feduccia's objection is eliminated by simply realizing that dinosaurs, like
bird flight itself, developed from the trees down. I find it absolutely
astounding that the >possibility< (let alone the reality) of secondary
flightlessness in _Caudipteryx_ and _Protarchaeopteryx_ seems not to have
occurred to the describers.