Re: Origin of feathers

["Jaime Headden" <jaemei@hotmail.com>]

Patrick Norton wrote:

<But unless Orsen is suggesting that Oviraptor was a flyer, I would not 
expect to see primary feathers--a derived flight character--on its 
forearm.>

  Not all feathers on a bird's arm are primaries, or even 
flight-related. The feathers on the arm illustrated lately are actually 
secondaries, with primaries extending from the carpometacarpus. Modified 
contour feathers on the arm may have developed into longer, round-ended 
feathers to serve the sun-shade function.

<Modern brooding birds protect their eggs from the sun (and the cold) 
with fluffed up body feathers. In any event, at the moment of death this 
particular Oviraptor was probably protecting its eggs against something 
other than the sun.>

  Predators, or sand-avalanche? Likely the former, defensive behavior, 
while most birds will flee a nest when attacked or in serious danger, 
unless there are chicks present, and even then. Better live to lay more 
eggs than die and risk the chance.

Jaime A. Headden

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