Re: flights of fancy (or "I'm brave, but I'm chicken****")

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 95-12-06 22:10:05 EST, ornstn@inforamp.net (Ronald
Orenstein) writes:

>Speculation - yes.  Arguments - yes.  Restorations - yes.  Devoutly-held
>beliefs - yes.  Just no evidence.

Right now BCF is in the same category of hypothesis as dinosaur endothermy or
dinosaur extinction at the K-T boundary via asteroid impact. Lots of arrows
pointing in one direction, but nothing nailed down and unlikely to be nailed
down any time soon. If the evidence I see in maniraptoran skeletons does not
nail down BCF, then it _certainly_ does not nail down BADD, either, for the
same reasons. In my opinion, however, BCF provides a unifying explanatory
concept that comfortably accommodates the evolution of flight in dino-birds
_and_ the pattern of evolution of theropods, whereas BADD does not. I stick
with BCF until clearly contradictory evidence says otherwise.