Dinofest notes

[Jeff Hecht <jhecht@world.std.com>]

Those of you who weren't at Dinofest missed some good talks and nice
people. Others have covered much, so I'll just pitch in on a couple of
things that struck me.

I didn't get to Paul Olsen's talks, but I did talk with him beforehand for
a story coming out in this week's New Scientist. He's got footprints right
up to the Triassic-Jurassic boundary from a diverse assortment of reptiles.
Above, it's almost entirely dinosaurs, and the theropods grew about
one-third larger within 20,000 years, judging by the footprints. This means
the Triassic-Jurassic was an abrupt transition, with the phytosaurs,
rhychosaurs, etc. going out suddenly, leaving the field clear for
dinosaurs. He's also got some some small reptile skeletons just under the
boundary; these, too, go out at the boundary.

Thomas Hopp proposed a new theory why birds evolved long wing feathers --
for protecting their eggs and young while brooding. This is the first
sensible reason I've heard for feathers that evolved as body insulation
growing long enough to get the birds off the ground. Alan Brush and a
couple of others were intrigued. Larry Martin pointed out a minor problem
-- the Oviraptor eggs on which the parent was found were buried, so they
would not -- or might not -- have required protection. But it didn't seem a
show-stopper.

Both are covered in this week's New Scientist -- check our web site.

Not covered in the magazine was the slide projector fiasco during the how
dinosaurs breathed debate. I've seen projectors eat slides before, and this
one frustrated both sides in the debate. But I've never seen a projector
barf up slides afterwards, which this one did, to the great amusement of
the audience. The slides just started popping up into the air from
somewhere inside the projector.

Jeff Hecht     Boston Correspondent    New Scientist magazine
525 Auburn St.,          Auburndale, MA 02166             USA
tel 617-965-3834 fax 617-332-4760 e-mail jhecht@world.std.com
URL: http://www.sff.net/people/Jeff.Hecht/
see New Scientist on the Web: http://www.newscientist.com/