Re: AW: Heterodontosaurid with protofeathers

[Amtoine Grant <rascienz@shaw.ca>]

On 18-Mar-09, at 12:36 PM, evelyn sobielski wrote:
> The really interesting question here - and it is one that is likely  
> to be swamped by a deluge of faux-feather headlines - is: why? What  
> is the use of such integumentary structures? It is hard to see them  
> as evolutionary neutral, so they are likely to have conferred some  
> benefit. What precisely did it evolve for?

If they actually evolved FOR something, they should at least give us  
a good idea what the stimuli for it was (NOTE - I'm pretty sure this  
"anticipated adaptations" train of thought is not how evolution  
actually works). It would seem that the spine/back necessitated  
protection from a rear attacker, with the tail often being in prime  
position and very often adapted for deadly defensive maneuvers.  
Assuming, of course, that evolution randomly happened to give groups  
of sauropods, stegosaurids, nodosaurids and ankylosaurids  
specializations for these tasks is telling also. If the  
heterodontosaurid & ceratopsian structures are indeed hollow, they  
could be analagous to porcupine quills. They also COULD be venemous,  
something we'll probably never know for sure. YOU WOULD think that a  
group of warmer-than-usual-blooded reptiles that diversified so much  
over approx. 140 million years would produce at least a FEW poisonous  
species. Here's to hopin I finished the thought I just had.

BTW,  I didn't realize yesterday was St. Patrick's Days so I'm makin  
up for it now.