Archaeopteryx probably cannot tell us much about the early origins of feathers and flight in true protobirds because Archaeopteryx was, in the modern sense, a bird.
ALAN FEDUCCIAInstead of regarding birds as deriving from dinosaurs, Scansoriopteryx reinstates the validity of regarding them as a separate class uniquely avian and non-dinosaurian.
More Alan Feduccia Quotes
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But it’s not. It is a bird, a perching bird. And no amount of ‘paleobabble’ is going to change that.
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Paleontologists have tried to turn Archaeopteryx into an earth-bound, feathered dinosaur.
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On the contrary, there is a considerable body of evidence that these fossil traces, known as ‘dino-fuzz’, have nothing to do with bird feathers…
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I, and many others, do not find any credible evidence that those structures represent protofeathers.
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Instead of regarding birds as deriving from dinosaurs, Scansoriopteryx reinstates the validity of regarding them as a separate class uniquely avian and non-dinosaurian.
ALAN FEDUCCIA