Wednesday, June 28, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 5
KU biologist's claim ruffles feathers in bird-dinosaur evolution debate
Professor challenges dominant evolutionary theory with new find
The fossilized remains of Longisquama insignis stir up debate over whether birds descended from dinosaurs. Larry Martin, KU paleontologist, said that Longisquama, which co-existed with the first dinosaurs had feathers, supporting his view that birds did not descend from dinosaurs. Contributed photo.
By Becky Trout
writer@kansan.com
Special to the Kansan
Feathers dominate the long-standing debate on the origin of birds, which recently was rekindled by a KU professor's article in the June 23 issue of Science magazine.
The article by Larry Martin — senior curator at the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology — challenges the dominant theory that birds descended from dinosaurs.
Martin and his co-authors describe elongated structures on Longisquama insignis — tiny, tree-dwelling creatures that lived approximately 220 million years ago — that they claim are feathers.
"One of the big problems with the bird-dinosaur idea is that you really can't be older than your grandmother." Martin said.
Longisquama, which means "long scales," lived at the same time as the first dinosaurs, but 70 million years before Archaeopteryx, the first bird. Martin said.
He believes Longisquama was a feathered reptile that glided from tree to tree. According to Martin, the ancestor of birds came from one of several arboreal species of reptiles contemporaneous with Longisquama.
Many scientists cite new evidence for the claim that birds descended from dinosaurs and dispute Martin's classification of Longisunaiana's elongated structures as feathers.
"They're trying to broaden the definition of feather structure to include these," said David Burnham, a KU paleontologist. "But in modern terms this is not a feather. They just happen to be structures that share some features with feathers. There's not even enough there to tell us if that is a little dinosaur or not."
Richard Prum, associate professor of ornithology, recently published a paper on the evolutionary origin of feathers. He maintains that birds descended from dinosaurs.
"I think that the similarities between Longisquama and bird feathers are entirely superficial in the same way that a leaf could be identified as a feather," Prum said. "My real problem is that there is no evidence of branching."
He describes the structures as "unique intersegmentary appendages found on the back of Longisquama."
Martin maintains that the structures are feathers because they share ten of twelve diagnostic feather features, including the feather sheath, which is critical in feather development.
But to Burnham, Prum and others the same features demonstrate that the structures are not feathers
According to Martin, feathers first appeared
in Longisquama and its relatives — the ancestors of birds — and then evolved again thousands of years later in dinosaurs.
If Longisquama and dinosaurs were related they would diverge,but instead the characters converge.Martin said, referring to the similarities between the feathers on dinosaurs and Longisquama.
According to Martin, the split in opinion runs between paleontologists, who study fossils, and ornithologists, who study birds.
Burnham countered that it is improbable that feathers evolved twice. He said it was more likely that all feathered organisms descended from a single ancestor with feathers.
"Paleontologists, almost without exception,
believe that birds are living dinosaurs, but most ornithologists believe that birds descended from small arboreal reptiles at an early point," Martin said. "Paleontologists are in the press a lot more, and I'm more prominent in my opposition because I'm a paleontologist."
Prum. an ornitholoeist. disagreed.
"That's totally incorrect. Most ornithologists don't have an informed opinion. The real dichotomy is between those who use modern phylogenetics and those who use nineteenth century methods."
The Science article is attracting extensive media coverage, and some reports have skewed the facts, Martin said.
Martin said the recent collaboration began when Crown Center in Kansas City, Mo., planned an exhibit of Russian dinosaurs in January 1999.
"The planners came to me and asked if there
"I think that the similarities between Longisquama and bird feathers are entirely superficial in the same way that a leaf could be identified as a feather."
associate professor of ornithology
was anything special that I wanted to see included, and I asked for Longisquama," Martin said.
Longisquama was first reported in 1970 by a Russian insect specialist and remained in Russia until it was brought to Kansas City according to Martin.
Richard Prum
Martin said he organized a conference on bird origins and lured prominent researchers by offering an opportunity to study Longisquama.
"We looked at the specimen and realized it was much more important than we thought."
The group of researchers, which co-authored the article, held a second conference several months later to polish its findings. Now, Martin plans to study the feathers and the bony structure of Longisquama in more detail.
"There are other animals related to Longisquama that are similar," Martin said. "This is not a one-shot deal."
Edited by Mindie Miller
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