Page 100 - The Evolution Impasse 2

98 Origin of the Bird Feathers

de scend ed from di no saurs. In ref er - stance, had short legs, an enor mous
ence to the di lem ma in which ev o lu - body and skin cov ered in ar mor-like
tion finds it self, Martin says: scales, but is a bird-type hip-boned

To tell you the truth, if I had to sup port di no saur be long ing to the
the di no saur or i gin of birds with those Ornithischian group. On the oth er
char ac ters, I'd be em bar rassed ev ery hand, Struthiomimus, some of whose
time I had to get up and talk about it. 94 an a tom i cal fea tures may be com -
In the face of all the sci en tif ic pared to birds, was thin with long
find ings, how e ver, the di no saur- back legs and short fore arms, and
bird ev o lu tion sce nar io, based on no be longs to the Saurischian group,
con crete ev i dence what so ev er, is still with rep tile-type hip bones.
stub born ly de fend ed. Certain con - Hip bone struc ture, there fore,
cepts that rep re sent no ev i dence for rep re sents no ap par ent ev i dence
this sce nar io are su per fi cial ly por - that di no saurs and birds are re lat ed.
trayed as "ev i dence" for the link be - The def i ni tion of "bird-type" hip-
tween birds and di no saurs. boned di no saurs is one based sole ly
Some ev o lu tion ist pub li ca tions, on sim i lar i ties, and oth er ma jor an a -
for in stance, sug gest that, based on tom i cal gulfs be tween the two
dif fer en ces in di no saurs' hip bones, groups make it im pos si ble to in ter -
birds evolved from di no saurs. The pret that one sim i lar i ty from an ev o -
hip bone dif fer ence in ques tion is lu tion ist per spec tive.
that be tween the Saurischian (rep tile-
type hip-boned) and Ornithischian
ORIGIN OF THE BIRD
(bird-type hip-boned) groups. This
FEATHERS
con cept of di no saurs with bird-type
hips is some times per ceived as ev i - The the o ry of ev o lu tion main -
dence for di no saur-to-bird ev o lu - tains that birds evolved from rep -
tion. tiles, but is to tal ly un a ble to ac count
In fact, how e ver, this pro vides no for the enor mous dif fer en ces be -
sup port for the claim that di no saurs tween these two sep a rate liv ing
are the fore run ners of birds. Certain class es. One fea ture that wid ens the
di no saurs be long ing to the un bridge a ble gulf be tween birds
Ornithischian group do not re sem - and rep tiles is feath ers, which are
ble birds at all in their oth er an a tom - unique to birds.
i cal fea tures. Ankylosaurus, for in - The struc ture of bird feath ers is

The Evolution Impasse II