Uncle Davey wrote:
> news:0a60c.54003$aH3.1659019@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
>
>>
>>Uncle Davey wrote:
>>
>>
>
>
>>>news:892cb437.0402271151.6f4f0c9d@posting.google.com...
>>>
>>>
>>>>branchofjesse@hotmail.com (Jerzy Jakubowski) wrote in message
>>>
>>>news:<b9b3de8.0402270454.ef64794@posting.google.com>...
>>>
>>>
>>>>>It's jolly funny that we can find eight toothed hoatzins from 150
>>>>>million years ago and not find eight Australopithecines from 1.5
>>>>>million years ago.
>>>>>
>>>>>Uncle Davey
>>>>
>>>>Come off it Davey! You know that this is a load of bollocks!
>>>>Since when did hoatzins have long bony tails? Not to mention the whole
>>>>suite of other features Archaeopteryx shares with dinosaurs, as well
>>>>as the suite of features it shares with modern birds.
>>>>
>>>>You can't use as an argument "I don't know therefore it isn't true".
>>>>Learn something.
>>>>
>>>>RF
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>So is this fossil a bird or is it a reptile?
>>
>>Archaeopteryx, Archy for short, is an archosaur. Archy is also a
>>dinosaur in particular a theropod. The question is, is Archy a bird?
>>That depends on the definition of bird you use, IMO Archy is a very
>>primitive bird.
>>
>>
>>>If hoatzins don't have bony tails now, then that's not a big issue.
>
> Within
>
>>>cats and dogs, tail length differs greatly.
>>
>>Modern birds, neornithes, have greatly reduced the number of caudal
>>vertebrae and generally the remaining caudal vertebrae are fused into
>>the pygostyle. Archy and some of his close relatives retained long bony
>>tails but they are all extinct now.
>>
>>
>>>Kindly explain to me the evolution of the feather, and what the drivers
>
> were
>
>>>behind that evolution when skin flaps were fine for pteradactyls and
>
> still
>
>>>are for chiroptera, which handle flight better than many birds.
>>>
>>
>>Feathers are modified reptilian scales. The original adaptive benefit of
>>feathers is unknown but was probably for either warmth or display.
>
>
> That's what H G Wells wrote in his 'short history of the world'. If they
> were for warmth, then are there any feathered reptiles with no wings?
>
Quite a few. Google for feathered dinosaur.
>
>>There remains a great deal of debate over how flight appeared in Aves.
>>It could have been a result of a fast running/leaping lifestyle or it
>>could have been an adaptation to an arboreal lifestyle.
>
>
> So you would say that flightless birds used to be the norm, then, like kiwis
> and struthionids, and that lot?
>
Flightless dinosaurs with feathers developed flight and became birds.
Since it is hard to draw a precise dividing line between birds and
prebird dinosaurs, it is hard to answer this question in a useful manner.
Ken
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