Re: Origin of feathers

[Thom Quinn <swo@execpc.com>]

Or, we can look at it like this:

When pre-feathers first appeared, they were small (like hairs), but had
a most definite impact on the visual appearence of the animals (via
bright color, shape, even a small, 1/4 millimeter pre-feather would
alter the appearence of the organism). The visual impact would just
gotten more important after some time, and gone hand-in-hand with the
enlargement and elaboration of the pre-feathers.