Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site uwmacc.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!uwvax!uwmacc!dubois From: dubois@uwmacc.UUCP (Paul DuBois) Newsgroups: net.origins Subject: Re: EnGardaeopteryx (part 4 of 6) Message-ID: <760@uwmacc.UUCP> Date: Wed, 27-Feb-85 14:03:39 EST Article-I.D.: uwmacc.760 Posted: Wed Feb 27 14:03:39 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 2-Mar-85 03:19:18 EST References: <732@uwmacc.UUCP> <620@mhuxt.UUCP> <296@petrus.UUCP> Organization: UW-Madison Primate Center Lines: 34 > > [Jeff Sonntag] > > Just what would you require of an intermediate specie between birds > > and reptiles, Paul? You criticized Arch.'s feathers as being almost > > identicle with modern bird feathers. You want maybe some sort of useless > > half-feather? Why would something like that be selected for? > > Why would you expect a specie with useless features to survive > > long enough to leave any kind of fossil record? > [Rich Hammond] > I do expect there to be intermediate forms. Arch.'s feathers, being > almost identical to modern feathers, are at best at the near end of > the intermediate spectrum. I expect to find earlier intermediates. > > You seem to be giving up on the whole point of Paul's argument, > that the fossil record doesn't support intermediates. > Paul (I suspect) says they aren't there because they never were. Actually, I didn't say whether I think the fossil record supports intermediates or not, or whether I think Archaeopteryx is an intermediate or not. Given the tenor of a number of the replies I have received in the past, it does not seem to be widely accepted even that I think, let alone think one thing or another. My original article was intended to dispel the erroneous impression the I felt was given by the article I was replying to, i.e., that the status of Archaeopteryx is settled and agreed-upon. It isn't now, and probably never has been. -- Paul DuBois {allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!dubois | --+-- "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but | the honor of kings is to search out a matter" | Proverbs 25:2