Re: Missing link feather fossils

[Dann Pigdon <dannj@alphalink.com.au>]

evelyn sobielski writes: 

> > I wonder how they compare to the feathers
> > of ratites. 
>
> Many ratite feathers have an aftershaft, that is, they
> have a small secondary feather attached to the bottom
> part. But some don't. Still, it would be worthwhile to
> compare them to these, as well as to other Cretaceous
> non-pennaceous feathers. 
>
> It is almost certainly impossible tha they are ratite
> feathers though.

It certainly wasn't my intention to suggest they were. I was just wondering 
whether the 'degraded' feathers seem on extant flightless birds might be 
similar in structure, in which case the 'intermediate form' of the feathers 
in amber (50 million years after Archie) could have come from secondarily 
flightless theropods, rather than representing a lineage with 'primitive' 
feathers that survived for so long (in competition with animals with more 
'advanced' feather structures). 

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Dann Pigdon
GIS / Archaeologist              http://geo_cities.com/dannsdinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia             http://heretichides.soffiles.com
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