Re: Origin of feathers

[Dinogeorge <Dinogeorge@aol.com>]

In a message dated 98-04-10 03:10:06 EDT, swo@execpc.com writes:

<< Thom:
 This is a interesting idea, but begs the question of cost-benefit
 ratios. Building pre-feathers would be energetically expensive. Would
 just the excretion of excess sulfates be enough of a selective force?
 Assuming that the non-feathered ancestors had the proper machinery to
 excrete sulfates what would make pre-feathers a better mechanism? Can
 the energetic costs of the pre-feathers be outweighed to make this a
 selective advantage? I think that this might be a uphill argument. >>

Details, details. Why should building pre-feathers be any more energetically
expensive than, say, building hair or skin? Who knows whether just sulfur
excretion would provide enough of a selective force? This kind of speculation
can go on and on forever with no hope of a resolution. Read the paper, make up
your own mind. For now, the origin of feathers remains an unsolved mystery,
and it is likely to remain so into the indefinite future. After a few rounds
of circling and getting absolutely nowhere, I get very bored, you know.