Re: Origin of feathers

["John V Jackson" <jjackson@interalpha.co.uk>]

-----Original Message-----From: Jonathan <spockjr@email.msn.com>Date: 22
April 1998 16:41

With regard to feathers evolving for brooding - although I have no doubt
that Oviraptor did have feathers and was brooding those eggs (the
positioning is absolutely perfect) - the theory does not satisfy the
"bootstrap test" - would the adaptation have had advantage the moment it
first appeared, ie as tiny projections above the level of scales.  If of
course insulation was already there for normal body insulation, the brooding
point would be a very small change.


Jeff Hecht said:

<-- the Oviraptor eggs on which the parent was found were buried, so they
would not -- or might not -- have required protection. >

The Oviraptor itself was buried; any sand between its bones and the eggs
could surely have happened as the non-bone material disintegrated.

JJ