More non-avian feathered Chinese dinosaurs 13 Nov 2009 “The integumentary appendages seen in non-avian dinosaurs document a series of transitional forms from typical archosaurian scales to typical avian feathers.” From here. Fig. 4 Known feather morphotypes of non-avian dinosaurs A. morphotype 1, single filament; B. morphotype 2, multiple filaments joined basally; C. morphotype 3, multiple filaments jointed basally on a central filament; D. morphotype 4, multiple filaments branching laterally from most of the length of a central filament; E. morphotype 5, multiple filaments arising from the edge of a membrane structure; F. morphotype 6, compound structure composed of a prominent rachis with symmetrical, well-organized and closed vanes on either sides; G. morphotype 7, compound structure composed of a prominent rachis with asymmetrical, well-organized and closed vanes on either side; H. morphotype 8, a prominent rachis with symmetrical, undifferentiated vanes on either side. Check out the images of dinosaur skin impressions too. Evolution
Evolution Reductionism article 27 May 2008 Two of my favourite philosophers, Ingo Brigandt and Alan Love, have just published an extremely useful and relatively complete summary essay on “Reductionism in Biology” at the Stanford Encyclopedia. They clearly identify the issues and confusions, which is what an encyclopedia article ought to do. If I have a criticism,… Read More
Evolution The World According to Genesis: Humanity 2 Jun 200724 Nov 2022 So in chapter 2, we shift stories. Now we have a story that is far older than the first chapter, and is regarded by scholars as the “Yahwist” creation story, and it focuses primarily on humans. The story is far more familiar than the first chapter is (the first few… Read More
Epistemology Pattern cladism and the myth of theory dependence of observation 4 Mar 2011 A new paper has been published in the History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, entitled “Pattern Cladism, Homology, and Theory-Neutrality” by Christopher Pearson. Either the journal has done something horrible to the text, or the author doesn’t know the difference between Willi Hennig and William Hennig, or between Gareth… Read More