NY times opinion

[John R Hutchinson <jrhutch@stanford.edu>]

From Sunday's NYT (at http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/26/opinion/L26DINO.html):

Re "Fossil of 4-Winged Dinosaur Casts Light on Birds and Flight" (news 
article, Jan. 23):
While the discovery of a four-winged dinosaur may ultimately prove to be of 
enormous importance, I doubt that it will cast new light on the evolution 
of birds. Since the geographic strata in which the fossils were found are 
about 125 million years old, this animal could not have been the progenitor 
of the avian line. Archaeopteryx fossils have been dated to almost 150 
million years ago ? more than 20 million years before this find ? and this 
animal is clearly more primitive in terms of flight equipment.

The line of thought this fossil might support is that feathers evolved at 
least twice, once in birds and again in dinosaurs. If this fossil had dated 
before the era of the first birds, had it been older than Archaeopteryx, it 
may have been the missing evolutionary link between the two groups of 
animals. HOWARD ZIMMERMAN

New York, Jan. 23, 2003
The writer is co-editor of The Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs.
==============================
[I only see him listed as "editorial project coordinator"; small difference?]

The first paragraph seems to fall in line with prior comments by Feduccia 
and co., but the second paragraph stands in stark contrast to those who 
favor Longisquama as a critter with structures homologous to avian feathers.


===========================================
John R Hutchinson
NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Biomechanical Engineering Division
Stanford University
Durand 209, BME
Stanford, CA 94305-4038
(650) 736-0804 lab
(415) 871-6437 cell
(650) 725-1587 fax
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