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New Aren't feathers same as fur with really bad split ends?



"Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect"   --Mark Twain

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."   --Albert Einstein

"This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses."   --George W. Bush
Expand Edited by tuberculosis Aug. 21, 2007, 12:41:15 PM EDT
New Not really. It's topology at work.
I recall a biologist explaining the difference between the evolution of feathers and hair this way:

You have a planar surface interface between the animal and the environment. The plane can change in 2 ways. It can locally bend up or or it can locally bend down. From that basic starting point, skin coverings evolved 2 ways. If the skin bends up, you have feathers or scales. If it bends down, you have hair.

[link|http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~cmchuong/2003JEZAdapt.pdf|This] 15 page .pdf discusses these issues in more detail with lots of pretty pictures.

Cheers,
Scott.
     Whew! That's big! 68 kB .img - (Another Scott) - (14)
         I see they've update sufficiently . . . - (Andrew Grygus) - (3)
             I guess Todd was just a few 100,000,000 years off then. - (Another Scott) - (2)
                 Aren't feathers same as fur with really bad split ends? -NT - (tuberculosis) - (1)
                     Not really. It's topology at work. - (Another Scott)
         That looks like something out of a Tim Burton movie - (bionerd) - (9)
             Oh, they look pretty efficient . . . - (Andrew Grygus)
             Re: evolutionary design flaw - (hnick) - (7)
                 But . . . - (Andrew Grygus) - (6)
                     A meteor will help with that -NT - (ben_tilly) - (1)
                         As will volcanos. - (Andrew Grygus)
                     Good point. - (bionerd) - (3)
                         I imagine they were used in some courtship ritual too. - (Another Scott) - (2)
                             'Dear Diary: today my heart leapt when Agent Scully - (Ashton)
                             Makes me glad the only thing I have to contend with - (bionerd)

So, what we gonna do tonight, Bwain?
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