Re: WING FEATHER ATTACHMENT

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> >Oh, and while you are at it, don't put wing feathers on the upper arms.
>
> Do you mean "Don't put flight feathers on the upper arms" or "Don't put
> *any* feathers on the upper arms"?

"Don't put flight feathers, aka wing feathers, aka remiges on the upper
arms, not even tertials." Normal contour feathers, protofeathers or whatever
were certainly present (why everywhere else and not there).

> This is an important distinction for both restoring _Archaeopteryx_ and
for
> adaptive scenarios for the evolution of flight within theropods.  No known
> specimen of _Archaeopteryx_ preserve tertials (the remiges attached to the
> humerus) though in at least two specimens (Berlin and London) the
primaries
> and secondaries are clearly present.

Indeed.

> Then again, no _Archaeopteryx_ specimen shows contour feathers on the body
> either.  A 19th century sketch of the Berlin specimen does show hair-like
> feathers associated the body (perhaps this is what Greg Paul is referring
to
> in _PDW_).  These feathery structures are not now evident on the actual
> specimen, either because they were polished away or because they never
> existed in the first place.

AFAIK they were prepared away to get at the bones. Contour feathers are
still preserved on the shins. The other specimens probably never had such
impressions in the first place because only wing and tail feathers are stiff
enough to make impressions under most conditions.

> Was there a gap in _Archaeopteryx's wing between the elbow and the body
> wall?  Maybe not.  It is possible that _Archaeopteryx_'s inner wing was
> filled in with a more simplified, primitive type of feather between the
most
> proximal secondaries and the body wall.  These feathers (unlike the more
> distal remiges - the primaries and secondaries) were not preserved, just
as
> the contour feathers on the body were not preserved.

IMHO it is more likely that such feathers weren't present on the animal, and
even if, then there's still the question why there aren't simply remiges on
the humeri. The brooding oviraptorid specimens may answer this -- their
humeri are appressed to the ribcage, with not enough space for a wing in
between.