RE: Archaeopterix? What Archaeopterix....?!

[ornstn@inforamp.net (Ronald Orenstein)]

>The trouble would not exactly the splitting (that occurs quite often), but
>the fact that all the feathers would be visible completely. Feathers are not
>flat and it's almost impossible that the creature would be fossilised with
>*all* the wing and tail feathers nicely flat in one plane.

Certainly not.  If the bird died on a flat mud surface and was quickly
covered, surely all the feathers (and the fossil) would be in the same
bedding plane - they are not required to be two-dimensional for this to
happen.  Look at the beautiful Solnhofen pterosaur specimens, with the
entire wing-membrane preserved in a single plane in specimen after specimen.
Not to mention the fact that the wings and tail might well be pressed open
and flat against the substrate (look at the next drowned gull carcass you see).
>
>1) Owen did no do it himself, he let someone in Germany do it.

So who did all the others?  Including ones discovered sine Hoyle's book?
This is nonsense.

>2) They are genuine Compsognathus remains. "Only" the feather imprints are
>fakes.
>Read the book...

Note the earlier posting by Stan Friesen.  These are NOT Compsognathus!
There are clear skeletal differences.  That is why they could tell that a
featherless specimen once mistaken for a Compy was NOT one!

>It has little to do with geochemistry or sedimentologie, I think.

If they are arguing that the fossil could not have been deposited as found
this has EVERYTHING to do with sedimentology.

Once again: the fossils were subjected to intense scrutiny AFTER the book
was published and the charges conclusively refuted in detail.  Perhaps one
of these refutations could be cited here?

Finally: if Archie were a fake how do you explain the recent spate of fossil
discoveries (Sinornis etc) claerly intermediate between it and more modern
birds in many characters?  It would be like finding fossils linking Homo
sapiens with Piltdown man.

H&W's claims are NONSENSE!
--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886 (home)
International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116 (home)
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