Re: Integument. . . extant vx extinct

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

Now we just need feathered and furred fish, salamanders with wings, etc. ;) 

Hairy arthropods, such as many spiders, have, of course, been known for some
time, and there's a hairy mealyworm, the chiton (Polyplacophora,
http://www.jaxshells.org/pappx.htm), but the material is made from chiton.

See here (http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artjan00/spileg.html) for some
interesting close ups of spider sensilla and "hairs," which are even shells of
material around an empty (at least not chiton-filled) core.

I am only bringing this up to help stem the anticipated argument that this will
permit opponents of bird-dinosaur links to making claims of "feathered" animals
in Liaoning that disprove the so-far exclusive nature of "dinofuzz" among birds
and dinosaurian ancestors. The nature of "pterofuzz" may be identical or
convergent.

  Cheers,

Jaime A. Headden
http://bitestuff.blogspot.com/

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth." --- P.B. Medawar (1969)

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