Re: Feathers on Bloody Everything

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/27/99 9:57:09 AM EST, ornstn@home.com writes:

<< Of course even if they are protofeathers, I am not sure
 that finding two dinosaurs with such structures in groups not that close
 to, say, dromaeosaurids tells us anything more about the dino-bird link
 than finding one has done.  The discovery certainly tells us more about
 dinosaur integuments, of course! >>

The integumentary structures on Sinosauropteryx are not protofeathers; 
they're true feathers something like those of kiwis: modified, because of 
secondary flightlessness, into hairlike filaments from the kinds of feathers 
found in flying birds. Sinosauropteryx is far too late in time to have 
retained without significant evolutionary modification the kinds of 
protofeathers that might someday be found on "non-dinosaurian avians." 
Longisquama has something closer to what protofeathers might have looked like.