Re: BCF and BADD

[theropod@garnet.berkeley.edu (John R. Hutchinson)]

Oh, boy, guess I'll jump in the fray and _wing_ it. ;-)


G.O. writes to Jeffrey Martz:

>What other reason? Display? Insect catching? Why not look at it the _right_
>way, and understand that feathers evolved for trajectory control, and that
>_this_ was the preadaptation for display or insect-catching or whatever. Why
>not choose the likelier alternative first?

The _right_ way? Is there one? Plausibility (="likelier") has little
bearing in this realm of speculation. I'd say any slightly reasonable
explanation has just about the same chance of being true as any other. As
the pundits say, truth is stranger than fiction.

                        John R. Hutchinson
                  Evolving Evolutionary Biologist
                 Department of Integrative Biology
                  3060 Valley Life Sciences Bldg
                University of California - Berkeley
                        Berkeley, CA 94720
                          (510) 643-2109
         http://ucmp1.berkeley.edu/people/jrh/homepage.html