Maybe somebody should rename Archaeopteryx. Perhaps sub in  Alterarchaeopteryx, for just another original bird. Today Robert Lee Hotz has in the Wall Street Journal a thoughtful analysis of a recent report that this icon of links, one supposedly at or near the root of radiation from the dinosaur clade that led to today’s birds, was actually on a dead-end sidebranch well after the key break to such things as plumage occurred, and irrelevant to the rise of many derived characteristic essential to birdness. Feathered yes, able to fly probably, interesting too. But not particularly distinctive. That is, the bones and details were still more dino than junco, and certainly it was not the ancestor of your yard’s robins.

Having had this brought to The Tracker’s attention led promptly to discovery that we – er, I – missed entirely a flock of stories on the same basic news about two weeks ago. Lee Hotz does a fine job essaying on the discovery’s overall lessons about evolution and our perceptions of its details. Thus, it’s a good follow. The news, from a Univ. of Florida man and colleagues, was in PLoS One.

Other, Earlier Stories:

• Scientific American – Katherine Harmon : Bye-Bye Birdie: New Look at Archaeopteryx Shows It Was More Dinosaur Than Bird ;
• LA Times – Thomas H. Maugh II: Archaeopteryx may have been more dinosaur than bird ;
• NYTimes – John Noble Wilford: Paper Challenges Ideas About ‘Early Bird’ Dinosaur ;
• USA Today – Dan Vergano: First bird was actually a dinosaur

Grist for the Mill: PLoS One Article ;

- Charlie Petit

This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Science Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.