Re: Dinofest

["Jonathan" <spockjr@email.msn.com>]

>>Dinofest was awesome!
>>Especially Nicolas Geist'
>>convincing talk on the "so-called
>>proto-feathers" of Sinosauropteryx.
>>Yah...collagen fibers.  Why was he
>>even there?
>>
>>Jonathan
>
>Please don't be shy... elaborate!! We are starving to hear about that
>
>Luis Rey
>
    Ok, well to be fair, I am biased toward Phil Currie and other's
interpretations of the Sinosauropteryx fibers as possible
proto-feathers.  And of course I understand he was there to
present an opposing viewpoint.  Basically, he showed some
slides of a monitor lizard (and a sea-snake) which had been
partially dissected with some collagen fibers from the back area
exposed (they looked to me as if they had been teased into
an upright position to compare to Sinosauropteryx).
He stated that this explains what the fibers on Sino are.
His argument was that after death, as the skin deteriorated,
small ligaments forced the collagen fibers in Sino to stand erect,
so arguing that the fibers were underneath the skin.  Also, he
argued that the fibers were only present along the midline of the
body, and not on the sides (Phil Currie's talk which preceded Geist's,
specifically mentioned fibers preserved on other parts of the body,
and that they are hollow).  Geist's argument was not very convincing
it seemed for most of the people in the audience.  He also stated
that we should look for the most parsimonious explanation, and use
a null-hypothesis.
 So, he effectively falsified his own hypothesis by his own reasoning.
Sinosauropteryx (and all other dinosaurs) is not closely
related to monitor lizards, and it seems an impossibility that even
if the fibers were collagen that they could end up in such a uniform
position after death.  Not very parsimonious when there are piles
of evidence which at worst show a close relationship between
theropods and birds, and none showing small theropods to have the same
skin as monitor lizards. When questioned after his talk, he tried to escape
as fast as he could with Larry Martin scrambling to answer
for him.  Also, as a note, Currie pointed out that the birds and Sinos
found in Liaoning, have their feathers (or feather-like structures)
preserved as a kind of halo around the body.
 My question, has anyone ever found indisputable (or at least reasonable)
evidence of collagen fiber preservation which appears
like that of Sinosauropteryx?
And isn't Geist a respiratory physiologist???
Anyway, 3 cents worth.

Jonathan

Spockjr@msn.com

Anything's possible, some things are just less likely
than others.