Riddle of the Feathered Dragons: Hidden Birds of ChinaExamining and interpreting recent spectacular fossil discoveries in China, paleontologists have arrived at a prevailing view: there is now incontrovertible evidence that birds represent the last living dinosaur. But is this conclusion beyond dispute? In this book, evolutionary biologist Alan Feduccia provides the most comprehensive discussion yet of the avian and associated evidence found in China, then exposes the massive, unfounded speculation that has accompanied these discoveries and been published in the pages of prestigious scientific journals.Advocates of the current orthodoxy on bird origins have ignored contrary data, misinterpreted fossils, and used faulty reasoning, the author argues. He considers why and how the debate has become so polemical and makes a plea to refocus the discussion by "breaking away from methodological straitjackets and viewing the world of origins anew." Drawing on a lifetime of study, he offers his own current understanding of the origin of birds and avian flight. |
Contents
Mesozoic Chinese Aviary Takes Form | |
5 | |
6 | |
APPENDIX 1 | |
The Persisting Problem of Avian Digital Homology | |
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Common terms and phrases
adapted Anatomy ancestor ancestry animal arboreal Archaeopteryx archosaurs avian flight basal archosaur basal birds bipedal bird origins birdlike bone Caudipteryx China Chinese clade cladistic cladogram claws colleagues Compsognathus Confuciusornis cursorial Czerkas Deinonychus derived developmental digits dinosaurian discovered discovery dromaeosaurs Early Cretaceous elongate enantiornithines endothermy evidence Evolution of Birds evolutionary evolved Feathered Dinosaurs Feduccia flight feathers flight origin flightless birds flying forelimbs fossil hallux hind limbs homology Huxley Huxley’s hypothesis John Ostrom Journal Late Cretaceous Late Jurassic lineage Lingham-Soliar London Longisquama Lower Cretaceous maniraptorans Mesozoic Mesozoic Birds Microraptor modern birds morphology Museum of Natural Natural History Norell origin of birds origin of flight ornithurines ostrich oviraptorosaurs Padian Paleontology phalangeal phylogenetic Phylogeny preserved primitive protofeathers pterosaurs ratites reptiles Science secondarily flightless showing similar Sinosauropteryx skeleton skull Solnhofen species specimen structures tail teeth terrestrial theropod theropod dinosaurs troodontids urvogel Vertebrate Paleontology volant wing Zhang Zhonghe Zhou