Re: Cold Blooded Dinosaurs

John Harshman <jharshman.diespam...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Well of course they serve another important function.
Several of them,in fact. But your claim doesn't
follow from that.

As does the fur on most mammals....

No, honey, I'm making no claims. I'm stating a fact.
You don't know the evolutionary pressures that lead
to feathers. You really don't. You think you do, but
you don't.


The fantasy here is that endorthmy is without question
the catalyst for the development of feathers.

What's your alternative?

Reality. What some people call "the facts."

And the fact is we can't rule out that insulation is a
secondary function of feathers. That, the evolutionary
catalyst was something else, and not endothermy.

We can not look at the fossil record and reliably
tell which animals had hair and which did not.

True but irrelevant.

Not irrelevant. What's irrelevant is asking question
which we can't answer unless my statement (which you
agree with) is not true.

Well, first you say there's exceptions, then you say that
there are never exceptions in the one case we happen to
be discussing...

Quite convenient, that.

Perhaps, but do you disagree?

Clearly, I believe that we should see at least a few
bald bird species if insulation were the only factor.

The fur on mammals serves more than one purpose. There's
insulation... camouflage... the Whitetail Deer even
signals a warning using the white underside of the tail
which gives it it's name. The fur on mammals serves
several purposes, as does feathers on birds, but only
mammals include bald species.

So there is something VERY IMPORT that's keeping birds
from losing their feathers, and it isn't insulation or
camouflage...


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Cold Blooded Dinosaurs
    ... As does the fur on most mammals.... ... that it's possible for hair to have evolved originally for another ... body coverings of hair and feathers. ... bald bird species if insulation were the only factor. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Cold Blooded Dinosaurs
    ... and feathers here, but about the origin of body coverings ... The fact that some mammals are bald is evidence, ... that hair and feathers are used as insulation in many species. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: The Theory of Evolution is a mathematically irrational belief
    ... HIV can not transform 2 genes at a time when selection pressures ... Just for insulation and homeothermy. ... Steven L tried to argue that reptiles evolved feathers for insulation. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: selection criteria for obesity
    ... > some reason) and needed some compensating insulation. ... than fur. ... animals in Africa, including chimps. ... infant on such ground. ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: WAAAY OT: Things your mother never told you...
    ... Mammal hair or fur grows in cycles and actually goes through three ... Various animals in northern climes shed ... Feathers have evolved to enable flight, among other things, and many ...
    (rec.outdoors.fishing.fly)