RE: Archie a bird not a dino

[Jaime Headden <qi_leong@hotmail.com>]

  No, it is a pigeon, *Columba livia* [putresens, if you hear tell the general 
acclaim from us citigoers], commonly known as "rats with wings," even if that 
attribution is given to bats in more rural locales. It is a extant bird posed 
in the nature of *Archaeopteryx lithographica*. There are two instances of 
this: 

  1, in an attempt to decry the hoaxing of *Archaeopteryx lithographica*, a 
project by Fred Hoyle in 1986 asserted that taking an extant avian (a pigeon or 
dove, I forget and have not read his _masterpiece_ on the subject), and 
flattening it, then placing the remains on a prepared limestone slab which was 
then coated with a solution including "muddy" limestone which would cover the 
elements and also provide a matrix into which feathers would be impressed. He 
used this technique to "prove" the material was a hoax. It was disproven by the 
late Alan Charig by dendrites. 
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/archaeopteryx/forgery.html has the fully 
details, and links that will lead to silly arguments "proving" the process was 
a hoax.

  2, there have been, I think two, attempts to replicate the taphonomic process 
that results in a Archie-like post (outspread wings, head thrown back, legs 
splayed but not ridiculously extended) using extant birds. I do not remember 
what the principles were, nor who performed them, although one of these was 
published (I think). Is that clear enough? Sorry.


Cheers,

  Jaime A. Headden
  The Bite Stuff (site v2)
  http://qilong.wordpress.com/

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


"Ever since man first left his cave and met a stranger with a
different language and a new way of looking at things, the human race
has had a dream: to kill him, so we don't have to learn his language or
his new way of looking at things." --- Zapp Brannigan (Beast With a Billion 
Backs)


----------------------------------------
> Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:49:51 -0700
> From: maniraptor@yahoo.com
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Subject: Re: Archie a bird not a dino
>
> What's the image at the top of that article of? An Archie specimen?
>
> "Scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the unpardonable sin." 
> ~Thomas Henry Huxley
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Ian Paulsen <birdbooker@zipcon.net>
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Cc: vrtpaleo@usc.edu
> Sent: Wednesday, 26 October 2011 12:56 PM
> Subject: Archie a bird not a dino
>
> HI ALL:
> FYI:
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/26/archaeopteryx-bird-family-tree
>
> sincerely
> --
>
> Ian Paulsen
> Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
> Visit my BIRDBOOKER REPORT blog here:
> http://birdbookerreport.blogspot.com/