RE: Revising Hou et al, 96 (very very long)

["Jaime A. Headden" <qilongia@yahoo.com>]

Tim Williams (TiJaWi@agron.iastate.edu) wrote:

<Ah yes... the protofeathers/parafeathers/quasifeathers of _Longisquama_.>

  I kinda prefer pseudofeather or parafeather (latter was previously
published).

<A few people (including Greg Paul in DA) have suggested that the things
apparently sprouting from the back of _Longisquama_ might not be
integumentary appendages at all - but leaves, and that the creature is
lying on top of them.>

  Though some aspects of preservation and structure support this, I have
tended to consider them as natural dermal structures. The regular
structure in a direction with the distal bend away from the "leading" edge
is not provided in many palm-like botanical foliage. It looks like they
were really complex, elongated scales. Regular bulbous "pockets" within
the "stem" of each structure and the wrinkling along the impressions may
correspond to deflated bubbles, but also to "straightening" of a naturally
bent plane. Taking the "ornamented," normally thickened scale structure,
and straiten it out, such wrinkling will be observed.

  Such a curvature might outrule any aerodynamic function, as well.

=====
Jaime A. Headden

  Little steps are often the hardest to take.  We are too used to making leaps 
in the face of adversity, that a simple skip is so hard to do.  We should all 
learn to walk soft, walk small, see the world around us rather than zoom by it.

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