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Re: Science feather strength debate
In a message dated 11/1/10 11:18:40 AM, jaseb@amnh.org writes:
> a 20% difference in mass makes a big difference in aerodynamics and
especially the metabolic costs of flight. Moreover, if the anterior body is
more
pneumatized than the hind parts this has implications for flight
configurations. And, again, the mass does not affect the feather strength,
which is
inherent to the feather structure. The mass affects the loading on the
feathers.<
This is ridiculous. The mass of an individual bird can vary by 20% or more
over a matter of hours (if it gorges) or days (as body fat deposits vary).
It is common for very long distance migrating birds to start out heavy with
fat and lose it by the end of the journey. The bird can effectively fly at
the beginning and end of the mission. In any case, as I have stressed
repeatedly in the literature, it is not possible to restore the mass of an
individual specimen better than +/- 20% or more because of problems with
restored
volume, SG, and normal changes in an individuals mass. The problem with the
Nudds and Dyke was that they overestimated the mass of the Archaeopteryx
specimen they examined by a factor of about two, Confusicusornis by about
three.
> I think you sell yourself short here. Your reputation is eminent and your
work is inspiring to anyone with so much as a passing interest in the
evolution of birds. I can imagine that dozens of students and researchers
around
the world would jump at the chance to volunteer some computer or mechanical
modeling work, or statistical anlaysis, on a project with Gregory S. Paul.
I can imagine students who would be delighted to do their thesis projects on
something like this and professors who would be delighted to host you in
their labs to study these questions.<
Because Jason continues to be rude by yet again offering unsolicitated
advice by lecturing me on how I should conduct my research even after I
explained his 1st error in doing so I shall lecture Jason on how to offer
advice.
Jason. You really want to "humbly" suggest a research project to someone then
directly send them an personal email with your ideas. If said person says
that is not workable for them then respect their decision and shut up. In my
previous message I explained that the idea of setting up some team is neither
practical on my part, nor was it necessary to point out the grevious flaws
in the N&D paper. So Jason, never again publicly lecture me or any other how
to conduct their research in terms of the scale of a project, it is not
your business. And it is very annoying.
GSPaul
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