birding-aus

Re: book review, The Origin and Evolution of Birds

To: Ronald Orenstein <>
Subject: Re: book review, The Origin and Evolution of Birds
From: (John Leonard)
Date: Tue, 11 Mar 1997 14:27:24 +1100 (EST)
>Readers of this list should be aware that Feduccia's book has come in for
>some extremely harsh criticism.  For an excellent review by Kevin Padian,
>noted authority on pterosaurs and similar creatures, see

Thanks Ronald for putting me on to this review. It sounds pretty damming,
but then, no doubt Feduccia could write an equally damning riposte?after all
he must have his reasons for arguing as he does. It sounds as if the issues
have become embroiled in the boring polemics between the users of cladistic
analysis and those who don't use it. But I don't think that anyone who reads
the book will come to much harm, and perhaps then they can read the papers
of cladists and their allies and make up their own minds.

It does seem a bit rich for Kevin Padian to accuse Feduccia of not using
scientific methods and then baldly to assert that Archaeopteryx was not an
arboreal bird because 'there were no trees in th evicinity of Solnhofen
lagoon...'.

Anyway, the debate continues (and will never end)....




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Dr John Leonard
PO Box 243, Woden,
ACT 2606, AUSTRALIA

"We are not concerned with hopes and fears,
only with the truth as far as our reason permits
us to discover it." Charles Darwin

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