Dinosaur-Bird Flap Ruffles Feathers

Yahoo!News ^ | October 10, 2005 | E.J. Mundell

[mlc9852]

MONDAY, Oct. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Head to the American Museum of Natural History's Web site, and you'll see the major draw this fall is a splashy exhibit on dinosaurs.

And not just any dinosaurs, but two-legged carnivorous, feathered "theropods" like the 30-inch-tall Bambiraptor -- somewhat less cuddly than its namesake.

The heyday of the theropods, which included scaly terrors like T. rex and velociraptor, stretched from the late Triassic (220 million years ago) to the late Cretaceous (65 million years ago) periods.

[Thatcherite]

I guess there is quite a nice analogy here between mechanics and biology. It is possible that the equivalent of general relativity will come along and alter how we see evolutionary theory at the edges and in extreme circumstances. But evolutionary theory is so well verified by millions of real-world observations that our current understanding would continue to be valid under normal circumstances.

[RunningWolf]

;)

[Stone Mountain]

Well, newsgatherer sure isn't going to... : )

[Stone Mountain]

You guys want to see something funny? Check out this Jack Chick tract, Big Daddy. Scroll down about half way to where a museum guide is giving a tour to a bunch of Christian children. Does this story sound familiar to you?

[Stone Mountain]

My bad - he wasn't a museum guide - he was a teacher. Same deal though.

[muir_redwoods]

"But the things they come out with are so outlandish that it is hard not to egg them on."

If you think that's outlandish you should see the people who think all that there is and all that one can know can all be explained by one old book mostly written by folks who took 40 years to make a three week hike through the desert.

[Tymesup]

Your post was fascinating. Thank you.

[RunningWolf]

Thats funny!!

and true,

Wolf

[newsgatherer]

If you think that's outlandish you should see the people who think all that there is and all that one can know can all be explained by one old book mostly written by folks who took 40 years to make a three week hike through the desert.

Ah, but that is not nearly as dumb, no dumb is not a good word, STUPID, ya, stupid is a better and more accurate desciriptive word, as believing that Billlions and billions of years ago in a galaxy far, far away there was nothing....

Ah, no wonder they call them the Darwin Awards!

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks mlc9852. Note: this topic is from 10/11/2005. Blast from the Past. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[SatinDoll]

Why are there flying squirrels? (Yes, you asked about feathered wings, but I will get there via squirrels.)

Because it is safer to glide, tree-to-tree, than to scamper down to the ground and risk death just to get to another tree. When a mutation occurs with a squirrel having skin flaps allowing it to get some lift and glide between trees, that genetic adaptation is passed along to its offspring. All are more likely to survive than a squirrel running a terrestrial gauntlet of predators.

Squirrels haven’t developed wings but they use the extensive skin flaps between foreleg and rear leg, right and left, to glide between trees.

The same survival need probably provided the opportunity for a mutation, which normally would not be of any import, to become the impetus for winged dinosaurs.

There are fossils of winged dinosaurs that used skin, similiar to squirrels, instead of feathers. These creatures were quite large and ungainly on land, but from where the fossils have been found, they flew huge distances across oceans, breeding in one geographical area (fossil remains of nests) and traveling to other continents for feeding, a migratory pattern seen today in many animals.

Mind, you asked about why feathers exist. Feathers seem to be an adaption to cold weather, a mutation of scales (feathers and scales are made from the same material as our fingernails), and functioned as insulation to trap air and maintain body warmth. Later, insulating feathers developed into stiff feathers beneficial to flight, and it may just be luck for those creatures, or the intervention of God, that the adaptation occurred.

Yes, I believe in God. I also believe that the laws governing the functioning of our universe come from God, and that scientists, knowing or unknowing, are discovering those laws.