I particularly enjoyed the esteemed Professor Ruben's measured,
insightful, well thought-out, relevant, trenchant comments.
Larry Martin made the same points to me. I couldn't work his comments
about the curious placement of an anomalously long feather on the leg
into my article, but it isn't where you would expect one. On the
other hand, it seems to be the best-preserved feather and a natural
one for Norell et al to concentrate on. Larry had only seen a
photograph, and not had a chance to examine the original specimen, so
his caution on fakes was justifiable after Archaeoraptor. It sounds
like Norell has a definitive answer to that, if he has the part and
counterpart and if the fossil is intact rather than piece together. A
CAT scan would be icing on the cake.
--
Jeff Hecht science & technology writer
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Correspondent, New Scientist magazine
Contributing editor, Laser Focus World