The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his065/arch_4.arj/ARCH-4.TXT

Text File | 1991-02-14 | 4KB | 71 lines

                      Archaeopteryx part 4- Scales to feathers

The  idea that feathers have some kind of ability to  evolve  from
reptilian scales is patently absurd.  One source that was mentioned
by   one  person  in  support  of  the  theory  stated  that   the
Archaeopteryx had feathers and scales.  the author could have been
referring  to the bird-type scales on the feet which are found  on
all  birds.   But  the  problem is,  these  scales  found  on  the
Archaeopteryx  are bird scales and are totally different from  the
reptile scales.

     The following are treatments on the feather/scale subject.

"Adam and Evolution" Professor Michael Pitman  copyright 1984.

     page 42 Consider reptilian scales,  bird feathers and fur.   The
evolutionist  holds that feathers and fur have  evolved,  divergently
from  scales.   But  can  such  different  skin-coverings  be  called
'homologous'?

   For  example,  a  feather and a  scale  develop  from
different  layers  of skin and follow  different  development  paths;
feather's  greater structural complexity must reflect a more  complex
genetic background.  Yet the first known feather is entirely feather-
like,  not  scale-like.

  The  genes  coding for each  type  of  skin
covering  must contain a sequence (subroutine) for  keratin,  because
each  is made primarily of a form of keratin.   Yet  this  subroutine
could well be integrated into quite a different overall set of genes.
If  so,  how  could  we  explain their  origin  in  terms  of  simple
inheritance from a common ancestor?

     Page  222  All  birds have feathers:   no  other  organisms  do.
Archaeopteryx has feathers.   There exists absolutely no evidence for
the  evolution  of feathers.   The guess that DNA coding  for  scales
'must have' changed to produce feathers is entirely unsubastantiated.
No intermediate scale-feather exists.

     Feathers are aerodynamic beauties.   They are light,  the  shaft
being hollow,  and quite different from the scales which are coded on
to  the feet alone of birds.   They grow from capsules  called  'pin
feathers' and become lifeless when full grown.   A feather from  wing
or tail is composed of a shaft with branches,  called barbs, arranged
diagonally  to the left and right.   The barbs have branches  to  the
right and left called barbules.   These overlap neighboring  barbules
and are interlocked to eachother by little hooks and eyelets.

     Some large feathers contain over a million barbules,  with hooks
and  eyelets  to match,  in perfect order.   The feather  is  useless
without  this  interlocking mechanism which acts  something  like  an
automatic zip fastener whose disturbance preening  rearranges.   When
outstretched  in flight,  the hooks cause the whole wing-assembly  to
form  a continuous sheet to catch the wind.   The whole feather is  a
cohesive,  elastic and light structure,  well designed to function as
an  air-resistant  surface.   Sensory receptors  record  its  precise
position.

   Over both wings they effect the continuous variations and
fine  adjustments of more than ten thousand tiny muscles attached  to
the base of the feathers.  Behold the parts of a precision instrument
of  aerospace,  unparalleled  in  design  and  workmanship  by  human
technology.

     Feathers  are in no way frayed or modified  scales.   They  even
arise  from  a different layer of skin  cells.   Whence  evolved  the
pigment  mechanism for coloring and patterning both plumage and  egg?
In the latter colours are laid down in the oviduct, in whose walls no
pigment  has  been found.   This indicates that the  organization  of
pigment and pattern is coded into then avian DNA.  By a megamutation?