Re: A whole lot of trouble....

[gpb6845@msu.oscs.montana.edu]

Stephen Throop wrote:

> On October 28, Peter Buchholz said a person could get into a lot of
> trouble for proposing a theory that annoyed scientists.  What fun!

No I didn't.  I meant that I'd get in a whole a lot of trouble because
I could see myself getting into an endless circular argument with
George and Jon like the previous discussions on bird origins have
turned into.  I didn't really care if I anoy scientists or not.

> He suggested that dinosaurs first had feathers.  They would flail their
> limbs for balance when they jumped from limb to limb.  That's how they
> learned by accident to glide.  Then the gliders evolved the structures
> necessary for powered flight.

Actually, I don't suggest it, I know it as a fact that dinosaurs had feathers 
before they could fly (Sinosauropteryx); unless of course Compsognathids are 
secondarily flightless, but retained nothing in their anatomy to suggest this 
like many Maniraptoriformes.

I also didn't say that they'd learn to glide.  I said they'd learn to flap 
that way.  Flailing while possessing big feathered arms could easily be 
exploited and renamed flapping.
 
That's all.  Just trying clarify what I said and didn't say.  I still don't 
see what's so different about BCF and BAFT, because, as you can see, they can 
be reconciled quite easily.

Peter Buchholz
gpb6845@msu.oscs.montana.edu

Maybe he's singing to that man...