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First Flying Dinosaurs Had Biplane Structure
unchiujar writes to mention a BBC article about the design of the first flying dinosaurs. These possible early ancestors of avians apparently resembled biplanes in many ways, with legs hanging down in a fashion similar to WWI fighters. The researchers who made this discovery use this to argue the 'trees down' model of flight evolution, but the article points out this design may possibly be a failed evolutionary experiment. From the article: "Dr Chatterjee, from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, US, explained that two lines of evidence had led the team to this conclusion. Firstly, the researchers argue, dinosaurs and birds move their legs in a vertical plane, not sideways as the tandem flight pattern requires. Secondly, the feathers on Microraptor's hind legs are asymmetrical; one of the two vanes that extend either side of the shaft is narrower than the other. Aerodynamically, the narrow leading edge of these feathers should face forward in flight, against the direction of airflow. This would have given the flying reptiles lift. "
It is interesting that some people get a chubby over the word 'design' whenever it shows up in evolution articles.
It's not like the bunch of quacks that drummed up the "intelligent design" theory invented the word "design." Using it doesn't make anyone religious.
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> There are dozens of times the Bible was curiously written (for contemporary eyes) it was, in fact, scientifically correct.
Curiously written? There's an understatement. I'm sure if your stretch your imagination to its limit with apologist interpretations the bible can also be used as a car repair guide.
> - THOUSANDS of years before e=MC2, the Bible had "Let there be light".
Seriously, use your noodle. This is meaningless gibberish.
And in fact, the ID folks specifically chose to use the words they did specifically to illicit responses just like yours. They hoped that they could use the choice of words to create confusion and hopefully trick people so they couldn't tell the difference between science and fairy tales.
Is it me or is dinosaur discovery actually dead?
I think it is you. I think most dinosaur paleontologists would say that this is a very exiting period. In the past two decades, the number of known dinosaur genera has skyrocketed and things like computer modeling and phylogenetic analysis have vastly increased our understanding of dinosaurs.
I have to think that most of the recent articles about these is to try to revitalize interest in the field but the simple fact is archeologists arn't that interesting.
Points:
1. Please don't mutilate the English language.
2. I think you mean paleontologists, not archaeologists.
3. Just because you don't find it interesting, doesn't mean other people can't find it interesting.
They'll try to make up some interesting stuff about them but seriously, now you're saying 150 years of evidence is wrong because the first flying dinosaur was a biplane?
No one is making stuff up, and no one is saying that 150 years of evidence is wrong. Microraptor does not contradict any modern theories about dinosaurs.
Either the guys now are just making stuff up, or the guys before them were making stuff up, either way something about that pisses me off.
Modifying theories, and sometimes totally discarding them, in order to fit the evidence and to be able to make better predictions is how science works.
Hmm, I have a feeling that I'm responding to a troll, but that's ok, I felt like writing about dinosaurs anyway.
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So, basically what you're saying is that you have a hard time understanding things that aren't movies, and you get frustrated and angry as a result, but blame the thing you don't understand.
Sounds like a personal problem.
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