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Daniel
Bensen said: "As to _why_ dinosaurs evolved feathers, all the list has been
able to
generate are just-so stories without any fossils to back them up either way." Well, I'm
not very right of it, but one of the theories for the mammals to had evolved
from scaled reptiles to hairy (?) mammal-like reptiles is that the fur is an
excellent way to keep constant the body temperature, in warm as in cold weather.
So do the feathers to the birds' bodies: they keep their temperature. This
effect of the fur (and feathers) is possible because of the air space between
the skin and the hair (or feathers) and between the hair (feathers) themselves.
A few months ago, the _Logisquama insignis_ has been "re"-discovered,
from some museum in Asia, and the possibility that the feathers' evolution may
have happened much before the _Caudipteryx zoui_, or even _Archaeopteryx
lithographica_, has been raised. So the theories are in constant modification,
as new specimens appear (and new theories too).
The
evolution is complicated, and not always understandable to humans, but it has
its reasons to happen the way it happens. Palaeontologists don't have the same
'material' available as the biologists (or even botanists), because they don't
deal with living organisms, but with the remains of specimens that lived a long
time before man could think about them.
I
hope I have helped a little bit.
Marcel Bertolucci
"Dinosaurs are the most
beautiful and interesting mystery I've ever
seen!" |