Feducciary challenges

["Ken Kinman" <kinman@hotmail.com>]

Dear All,
    Just passing along some challenges (concerning Norell's new 
dromaeosaur) from the anonymous Feducciary who I quoted once before.
                     ------Ken
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Take a look at the picture URL below:
http://research.amnh.org/vertpaleo/f9.html
    The "feathers" of this fossil show up as brown stains on the slab, and 
yet the brown stains in this picture are missing from the area contacting 
the femur.  But there are lots of brown stains several inches away from it.  
Are the "feathers" on the femur several inches long with the proximal parts 
not preserved?  It would be highly unusual to say the least.  If so, then 
this "dino-bird" has "leg warmers": long feathers sticking out of its 
thighs.  How an animal can run with long stiff feathers sticking out of its 
thighs is beyond my imagination.  Also note the striations in the matrix 
between the femur and the brown stains.  It appears that these lines are 
present even when the integument/"feather" (brown stains) isn't there.  
These two facts strongly suggest that at least some of these so-called 
"feathers" are simply preservational and/or preparational artifacts.
    Concerning the claim that this fossil is a dromaeosaur, I see no 
evidence of a sickle claw.  If this is the closest "nonavian" relative of 
birds, then it disproves the hypothesis that dromaeosaurs are the sister 
group of birds.
    Lastly, the claim that dinosaurs needed insulation is simply ludicrous. 
 Even therapsids didn't need insulation in the warm, equable Mesozoic 
climate and there is no evidence that they had fur or Harderian glands.  It 
is only when their descendants (the mammals) became small (~50mm total 
length) and nocturnal that the first evidence of fur appeared (in the form 
of Harderian glands), in the earliest mammals (Ruben and Jones 2000, 
Selective Factors Associated with the Origin of Fur and Feathers, Amer. 
Zool. vol.40, #4).  A duck-sized, presumably diurnal dinosaur like this one 
would almost certainly not need insulation.
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