FEATHER FLOP 1 – ARCHAEOPTERYX FEATHER, according to reports in ScienceDaily and SciTech Daily 30 September 2020 and Scientific Reports 30 September, doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-65336-y. In 2019 a group of scientists from University of Hong Kong used a new laser scanning technique to study an isolated feather fossil found in the Jurassic rocks of Solnhofen, Germany. These rock layers contain fossils of Archaeopteryx, but the researchers concluded the feather belonged to “a different feathered dinosaur that lived in the Solnhofen Archipelago” and not to Archaeopteryx. Now another group of scientists led by Ryan Carney of University of South Florida have studied the feather along with actual specimens of Archaeopteryx and reported: “Here we show that the feather is most likely an upper major primary covert, based on its long calamus (23.3% total length) and eight other anatomical attributes. Critically, this hypothesis is independently supported by evidence of similar primary coverts in multiple specimens of Archaeopteryx–including from the same fossil site and horizon as the isolated feather”.
Link: ScienceDaily, SciTech Daily
ED. COM. In Evidence News vol.19 No. 2, 20 February 2019 we reported the original feather story and made the comment: “These scientists should be commended for developing a new method for studying fossils that reveals more detail. However, their bias shows when they try to identify the feather as from a dinosaur. It is obvious that their evolutionary mindset cannot admit it could be an ordinary bird feather, even though that is what their technique reveals”. See our original report ‘Archaeopteryx Feather Challenge’ here. We agree with the new study that this feather is most likely from Archaeopteryx, given it was found in a rock layer also containing Archaeopteryx remains. It’s again time to remind evolutionary scientists and journalists that Archaeopteryx is now a proven bird and not a dinosaur, so our original comment that the feather belonged to a bird has been proven correct. For further evidence of Archaeopteryx’s bird features see our reports ‘Archaeopteryx had Bird Ears’ here and ‘Archaeopteryx was a Bird Brain’ here.
Photo of feather: Notafly, reproduced under Creative Commons Licence CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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