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Living dinosaurs
abc.net.au ^
| 9/30/2002
Posted on 10/01/2002 8:32:43 AM PDT by SteveH
News in Science
News in Science 30/9/2002 Living dinosaurs
[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s687677.htm]
If we are to believe the message of a new exhibit demonstrating the evolutionary transition from dinosaurs to birds, dinosaurs are not extinct.
Four life-sized reconstructions of ferocious-looking, smart-thinking, flesh-eating feathered dinosaurs – representing 125 million-year-old missing links between dinosaurs and birds – have landed at the Australian Museum in Sydney as part of the Chinese Dinosaurs exhibition.
"The birds we see flying around our backyards are actually living dinosaurs, descendants of prehistoric beasts we all once presumed became extinct 65 million years ago," said museum director, Professor Mike Archer.
"But feathers were evolving as dinosaur attributes long before they became valuable as flight structures," he said.
"Indeed fossils uncovered in the Liaoning Province of China have provided a whole sequence of missing links in the dinosaur to bird story."
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Model of Sinornithosaurus smillenii (pronounced 'sine-or-nith-oh-saw-rus mill-en-ee-eye) made by Alan Groves working with palaeontologists Drs Walter Boles and Sue Hand.
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One of the earlier links is Sinosauropteryx prima. The creature is covered with what looks to be a fine fuzz but are really small barbs – a link between scales and feathers.
"It's a metre-long, meat-eating, ground-dwelling predator, closely related to the dinosaur in Jurassic Park II which ate the little girl on the beach," said Professor Archer.
He speculated these very early feathers were probably for insulation since this group was almost certainly warm blooded.
The Sinornithosaurus millenii (top picture) embodies a later link.
"This is a very vicious little predator about a metre long. But here the feathers are much larger – although they're not fully formed or capable of flight," said Professor Archer.
An interesting characteristic of the creature was its capacity to lift its arms over its head in a flapping motion. Professor Archer said scientists assumed its array of feathers had a purpose – to frighten predators, help capture prey, attract mates or threaten male competitors.
The next stage – the development of feathers for flight – is seen in creatures like the Archseopteryx, a smaller animal than Sinornithosaurus millenii with longer and assymetrical feathers.
While there has been some debate as to whether dinosaurs (unlike other groups of reptiles) are the ancestors of birds, Professor Archer believes since 1996 there has been no strong argument against the hypothesis.
"I don't know anyone who is still holding out on this one," he said. "Other than the creationists of course who don't want anything to be ancestral to birds."
Chinese Dinosaurs is open until February next year. The dino-bird exhibit is sponsored by The Australian Skeptics.
Anna Salleh - ABC Science Online
More Info?
British Natural History Museum Dino-Birds Exhibition
Missing link from fur to feathers – News in Science 27/4/2001
Dinosaur fossil with proto-feathers – News in Science 8/3/2001
Dinosaur-bird theory defended – News in Science 24/11/2000
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© ABC 2002 | privacy
TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: birds; crevolist; dinosaurs; evolution; paleontology
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To: Lurking Libertarian
To: All
overall the lower sub surface crust and plates formed from the bottom!
Rather quickly too---ruling out the mutation/morph theory!
To: PatrickHenry
For me, it defeats the purpose of banning. Banned people are supposed to stay banned, no exceptions, unless and until they can successfully petition for their reinstatement. It's always been my misunderstanding that trying to sneak back on under other names is strictly forbidden. Ted may be a "very special boy", but he's not so special that he's immune to the rules that apply to the rest of us.
And that goes for JediGirl as well, much as I hate to see her banned - hopefully she or others can persuade JR to permit her to come back, but until that happens, she has no right to post here against the wishes of the operators.
To: general_re
Specious science---rights...
all kinds of segregation and discrimination cases---
class action suits/awards---ACTIONS
To: general_re
It's always been my misunderstandingUNderstanding, not misunderstanding, you dope. Back to the coffee machine....
To: balrog666
Thanks for asking! I took the trouble to go over there and tell him
here,
I want to expand on what I told you on TOS. I share your desire to see Republicans sweep Dems from office all over the country. I want to see a repudiation of liberalism. But put a sock in it! You're more than an embarrassment to my side. You're a borer from within, an active discrediter of what I stand for. If you're not getting a stipend from the DNC, you should be.
On FR, I mostly hang out defending mainstream science against various wackos who want to further degrade education in this country beyond even what the Democrats have done with unionized staffing and PC-ized subject matter. On those threads, the opposition is saddled with a foaming at the mouth creationist whose opening sally is something like, "You execrable lying scum" and whose responses to criticism and analysis tend toward dishonesty and amnesia. I've often wondered what I would do if my side of that debate were saddled with such a self-discrediting, counterproductive buffoon.
Today I know how the other side must feel, seeing that clown post. It's exactly what I feel, seeing you.
To: VadeRetro
Evolution is a criminal conspiracy
ROTFLMAO!
98 posted on 10/1/02 7:00 PM Pacific by RadioAstronomer
The master race in Germany ended in a bunker in berlin!
To: VadeRetro
To: All
overall the lower sub surface crust and plates formed from the *top to the* bottom!
Rather quickly too---ruling out the mutation/morph theory!
To: VadeRetro
An excellent little discussion of the problem of rabid idealogues protected from responsibility for their irrational and abusive rants.
To: Axenolith
Geologic column---dating??
From the evolution textbook...
Why does it look like it does(grand canyon)?
"The reason that it looks the way does is due to the sequence in which the events that help to create it happened. We already know that there was once a very tall chain of mountains in the area that occupied the Grand Canyon. These mountains were, over many millions of years, eventually eroded away to form a level plain. Fluctuations in climate then caused the oceans to move in over successive periods and each time a new rock layer was deposited. The rock layers were deposited one on top of the other and sometimes there were long periods in between in which some of the upper layers were eroded away, sometimes completely."
"We already know that there was once a very tall chain of mountains in the area that occupied the Grand Canyon. These mountains were, over many millions of years, eventually eroded away to form a level plain.
That is called science..."we already know"!
Campfire stories! Junk!!
Evolution...tall tales/legends---big lies(no comprehension)!
But the effect is permanent---zombie brains---religion/ideology---BIAS!
Govt school religion---'science'!
Bias means off the wall/page---outta reality...desire for something not true!
Evo cargo-go cult---ufo's!
To: piltdownpig
Please do not post multi-pages of text and giant graphics when a link and the specific text being addressed would suffice. Many posters have slow connections and limited memory. Large posts can lock threads up making them inaccessable to many. Thanks.
To: gore3000
Regardless, the only multicellular in the Cambrian that existed before was the worm. What didn't you understand about the "quilted animals" or the jellyfish? We won't even tackle sponges, which predate the Cambrian and are still around. And, BTW, you obviously have forgotten all about the lovely little chart posted a month or two back showing the number of phyla which appeared in the Vendian, but then you start each thread tabla rasa.
191
posted on
10/02/2002 7:55:21 AM PDT
by
Junior
To: gore3000
During the Cambrian in a period of less than 5 million years some 40 different animal phyla arose. (a phyla is the highest order of classification of species just below kingdom). First, the Cambrian Period lasted 40 million years, not 5 million, and second "phylum" refers to body plan.
192
posted on
10/02/2002 8:01:03 AM PDT
by
Junior
To: Junior
Evolution is a criminal conspiracy...
and I see in the near future there is going to be a new civil rights revolution happening.
There are enormous injustices and injury to levy and correct!
To: Junior
There are enormous injustices and injury to levy and exact!
To: Axenolith
What if the sedimentary layers are thicker than the potential maximum height of the adjacent source area? Wouldn't that be called a butte!
To: gore3000
The only pre-cambrian multi-cellular animal is a worm.Are you claiming that all the Ediacarian dauna were worms ?! Source, please.
To: Axenolith
Canyons, with the exception of the rift valleys, are exclusively erosional features. If they formed by cracking, they'd all have normal or reverse faults in the bottom and you just don't see that. ...slow cracking---that is why the canyon walls are sloped and layered---V shaped!
Light/little erosion!
Young earth...NO possible evolution!
To: f.Christian
Junior:
First, the Cambrian Period lasted 40 million years, not 5 million, and second "phylum" refers to body plan. You: There are enormous injustices and injury to levy and exact!
Hmmmm. Are we having a little trouble following what is being said here?
The "Cambrian Explosion" is offered by creationists as the time of appearance of "all major life forms." Oh, really? Which of the following appeared in the Cambrian?
- Mammals,
- Reptiles,
- Amphibians,
- Jawed Fishes,
- Insects,
- Flowering Plants,
- Land Plants,
- Stromatolites,
- Sponges,
- Arthropods,
- Birds?
The answer is, of course, "None." Stromatolites, Sponges, and Arthropods are all established before the Cambrian. Everything else comes after. Source
Stone Trails Time Chart.
Those phyla that did appear in the Cambrian show the telltale signs of recent divergence. They are similar in size, complexity, and lack of derived features. They simply have different body plans in an unprecedented time of radiative adaptation and experimentation.
To: f.Christian
What's shakes at the bottom of the ocean...
nervous wrecks(theories)!
To: gore3000
As for
Vendian fauna that have modern descendents, you need look no farther than
Cnidaria, while there also appear to be primitive
Arthropods in Vendian strata. You know, a simple, 5-minute google search would keep you from making stupid and easily refutable statements. But then, of course, you'd have nothing to say.
200
posted on
10/02/2002 8:23:45 AM PDT
by
Junior
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