Re: feathers for brooding

[Dinogeorge <Dinogeorge@aol.com>]

In a message dated 98-04-25 03:15:39 EDT, jhecht@world.std.com writes:

<<  by evolving longer brooding feathers, the animal would have been able to
brood a larger clutch of eggs, and protect more young once they had hatched.
Note this is
 a marginal advantage -- the longer the feathers, the more nestlings can be
 shielded. Then once the feathers had grown long enough, they could have
 helped the animal get off the ground as a bird -- perhaps first by leaping.
>>

If this hypothesis is going to stick, someone is going to have to show how
feathers that evolve specifically to shade clutches of eggs need ever have
anything to do with flying. Here's an animal that supposedly has evolved
feathers on its arms for the purpose of shading eggs, and this somehow
qualifies it to >fly<. This is like reading <i>Peter Pan</i> all over again.
Why >feathers< and not an >umbrella< for Heaven's sake, like Mary Poppins?
Growing out of the middle of its back! Give me a break with these so-called
"hypotheses."

This one's on a par with birds evolving the ability to fly by deliberately
leaping off cliffs. Now >there's< natural selection at work for you.