Re: Origin of feathers

[Betty Cunningham <bettyc@flyinggoat.com>]

Decent enough arguement - consider that wierdy lizardy thing
(Coelurosauravus jaekeli, Sues et all) that developed new bones
alongside it's ribs that came out of the skin itself.  And had those
develop into wierdy wing-strut thingies.  What metabolic reason would
new bones be created other than a mutation simply occuring that didn't
kill the animal off in the first place?  Couldn't feathers be a sample
of the same thing-a wierdy mutation?

-Betty

Dinogeorge wrote:
> I don't maintain an aerodynamic origin for feathers. I currently favor a
> metabolic origin for feathers. This >is< compelling, in that feathers thereby
> fill a prior physiological need of the organism. Feathers did not >originate<
> to fill some aerodynamic purpose; they were exapted for an aerodynamic purpose
> after they appeared. The ultimate cause of the appearance of feathers--or
> primitive structures that were homologous to the feathers we are now familiar
> with in birds--is random mutation together with the initial selection effect
> that preserved that mutation in the population where it originated. That
> initial selection effect, I assert, must have been physiological.