RE: Feather Flap

[evelyn sobielski <koreke77@yahoo.de>]

--- Danvarner@aol.com schrieb:

> Here's an interesting article  from Nat'l Geo with a
> lot of quotes. DV
> 
>
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/06/070601-dino-feathers.html

OK, so now we know how it sounds like when Padian gets
pissed off.

But what worries me is that nobody seems to have
pointed out the salient fact that Sinosauropteryx is
not really needed as long as there's Archie and
Microraptor. The features in question are not
"proto-feathers" in the big scheme of things, period.
They maybe were proto-feathers for *one* minor lineage
of theropods, which would be nice but not all too
important. They are either homologous (same keratin
basic structure, different phenotype compared to
Archie/Microraptor feathers) or analogous (different
keratin, structure similar to down).

Anyone can flog Sinosauropteryx to death. But the role
of its integument in the big picture is minor. The
true proto-feathers (from which Archie's evolved) were
far longer ago, and this question is not addressed. As
my maths teacher said, "Go get an adversary, not a
victim". Feduccia might want to falsify the existence
of feathers in Microraptor. Or he might not want to,
because he won't be able to.

Eike

PS phylogeny, "minor lineage of theropods" and all:
was Senter's upcoming piece of work
doi:10.1017/S1477201907002143 discussed here already?


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