Re: Coelophysis *feathers*???

[TomHopp@aol.com]

 hot__male60@hotmail.com wrote:
<< a 42 foot long _T. rex_, with huge feathers flying from it's neck would 
scare the doodie out of me! >>

   You might want to read DINOSAUR WARS. In my science fiction novel, T. rex 
has a feather mane, megaraptors are fully feathered like eagles, and Gar the 
Kra, an intelligent bird/dino is, well, read the book. Fiction's nice. No 
need for parsimony arguments, just imagination.

<<I'm a believer in parsimony. If there is no good reason to believe in it, 
and no evidence for it, then it probably didn't exist.>>
   I don't think this is an expression of parsimony, which ought more 
properly to be based on evidence, rather than lack of evidence. To me, fuzz 
on pterosaurs and theropods has serious implications for all dinosaurs. You 
have to claim they are just convergent structures, or look out! --everybody 
gets fuzzy.

<<Hmmmm, how complex is a strand of hair? As far as I know, it's just an 
elongated scale/scute with a follicle. A structure that simple could evolve 
convergently among many taxa, so is of doubtful use in figuring out if we 
have fluffed-up basal dinos.>>

Hair is a complex structure, and bears great resemblance to feathers at the 
follicle end of things. Sure, such structures could have evolved 
convergently, but parsimony works against, not for, this argument. 
Convergence itself, while real in some cases, is not particularly 
parsimonious.

Thomas P. Hopp
Author of DINOSAUR WARS, a science fiction novel published by iUniverse
Now Humans are the Endangered Species!  http://members.aol.com/dinosaurwars