RE: FEATHERS 2

["Cunningham, Betty" <Cunningham@sega.com>]

Jeff said:

>   Again, does the sediment really have to be especially more fine
>grained then sediments that can retain skin impressions?  If
>sediment is fine grained enough that you can press skin into it and
>leave an impression, why can't you do the same with feathers?

Would body feathers look like anything more than smooth surface if you   
got an impression (similar to impressions taken from dinosaurs with   
scutes and scales) when the featheres were un-ruffled? How would   
paleontologists KNOW such an impression was from the surface of an   
animal, not some imprint of, say, a smooth rock?  I think only a RUFFLED   
feather set would leave an impression recognizeable as feathers (or at   
least not-smooth-something) and most other finds would have been from   
where water was moving over the body in a current for part of it's   
fossilization, and wouldn't that smooth out feathers?

 -Betty Cunningham