Re: Did Feathers Evolve for Dispaly? We Still Don't Know!

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@umd.edu>]

Tim Williams wrote (okay, quoted):

> "Furthermore, we now know that the simplest feathers in dinosaurs such as
> _Sinosauropteryx_ were only present over limited parts of its body â?? for
> example, as a crest down the midline of the back and round the tail â??
> and so they would have had only a limited function in thermoregulation."

Actually, I am not at all convinced that these were present only over
limited parts of the body. The situation is such that we only get
preservation where sediment meets sediment, and thus only in halos around
the organism. Unfortunately we can't tell if these are the only fuzzy
parts, or simply the lucky fraction of the fuzzy parts that get preserved.

-- 
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Email: tholtz@umd.edu   Phone: 301-405-4084
Office: Centreville 1216
Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Dept. of Geology, University of Maryland
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
Fax: 301-314-9661

Faculty Director, Earth, Life & Time Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite/
Faculty Director, Science & Global Change Program, College Park Scholars
http://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc
Fax: 301-314-9843

Mailing Address:        Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                        Department of Geology
                        Building 237, Room 1117
                        University of Maryland
                        College Park, MD 20742 USA