Feathery flight of fancy
Alleged ‘protofeathers’ fail under close scrutiny
by Shaun Doyle
Photo: Don Batten
Sinosauropteryx prima
Sinosauropteryx has been one of the stars of the evolutionary dino-to-bird
story. First reported in Science in 1996,1
it was excitedly paraded (along with certain other fossils) with much fanfare by
evolutionists, who declared that 1996 was ‘a good year for finding fossils
that tell us about the origin of birds.’2
The cause of the controversy and media attention was hard, bristly fibres found
in the skin on the back of the neck and on the tail of the Sinosauropteryx
fossil.
Even then, there was much debate among evolutionists about whether these fossils,
especially Sinosauropteryx, provided evidence for the dino-to-bird theory
(see Dino-bird evolution falls flat!).
However, just a year later, Larry Martin suggested that the fibres found on the
back of the neck and tail of Sinosauropteryx were likely ‘frayed
collagenous fibers under the skin’.3
Since then, further research has suggested that the ‘protofeathers’
of Sinosauropteryx were not protofeathers at all (see
Dino feather folly).4
Now, a team of researchers led by Prof. Theagarten Lingham-Soliar from the University
of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa has added to the mounting body of evidence
that shows that Sinosauropteryx is not a dino-to-bird
intermediate fossil. They reported in Proceedings of the Royal Society B
that the filamentous structures in the skin of a recently discovered Sinosauropteryx—often
touted as ‘protofeathers’—are nothing more than structural collagen.5,6
These findings have sent orthodox dino-to-bird believers into damage control.
These findings have sent orthodox dino-to-bird believers into damage control. David
Unwin, dinosaur expert at the University of Leicester, UK, is convinced that the
work of Lingham-Soliar et al. is solid. However, he also said ‘There’s
no need to panic. This doesn’t in any way challenge the idea that dinosaurs
had feathers and that dinosaurs gave rise to birds.’7 However, this completely flies in the face of the
report by Lingham-Soliar et al.: ‘The pervasiveness of the beguiling,
yet poorly supported, proposal of protofeathers in Sinosauropteryx has
been counterproductive to the important question of the origin of birds.’
Lingham-Soliar et al. are more right than they would probably care to admit.
Because, despite the fatal blows their latest paper inflicts on a widely-held evolutionary
idea, they’re not about to question the evolutionary paradigm itself. This
shows once more that evolutionists continue to deal fatal blows to one another’s
pet theories, yet fail to come to terms with the underlying problem of their fossil
investigations—the evolutionary worldview. Once again, these well preserved
fossils prove to be wonderfully consistent with rapid burial in the global Flood.
Further reading
References
- Gibbons, A., New feathered fossil brings dinosaurs and birds
closer, Science 274:720-721, 1996. Return
to Text
- Gibbons, ref. 1, p. 720, quoting Luis Chiappe, then paleontologist
at the American Museum of Natural History. Return to Text
- Gibbons, A., Plucking the feathered dinosaur, Science
278:1229. Return to Text
- Feduccia, A., Lingham-Soliar, T., and Hinchliffe, J.R., Do
feathered dinosaurs exist? Testing the hypothesis on neontological and paleontological
evidence, Journal of Morphology 266(2):125-166, 10 October
2005 (DOI: 10.1002/jmor.10382) Return to Text
- Lingham-Soliar, T., Alan Feduccia, A. and Wang, X., A new
Chinese specimen indicates that ‘protofeathers’ in the Early Cretaceous
theropod dinosaur Sinosauropteryx are degraded collagen fibres, Proceedings of the
Royal Society B doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.0352, Published online 23 May 2007;
Return to Text
- Obviously aware that there will be many people with a strong
interest in protecting the evolutionary dino-to-bird paradigm, Lingham-Soliar et
al., (ref. 5, p. 2.) have countered a likely objection by affirming that
the method they used to identify the filamentous structures as collagen is ‘more
than adequate’ for the job of identifying dermal collagen in a wide range
of living and fossil specimens. Return to Text
- Sanderson, K., Bald dino casts doubt on feather theory,
Nature doi:10.1038/news070521-6, Published online 23 May 2007;
http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070521/full/070521-6.html. Return
to Text
Published: 25 May 2007(GMT+10)
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