Comments

Okay then! All those pro-intelligent design type people arrayed against evolution carp on about the lack of transitional fossils. So when something is found that shows a transitional form of feathers and can lend insight into the evolution of this trait you all cry that it proves nothing. I don't think anybody is claiming that this one fossil is the prototypical "missing link". It is one more piece of the puzzle that shows how feathers and birds probably evolved from dinosaurs. I think it is much more likely that this is a real trait than a freak manifestation of a form of feather. Do you know what the odds are that one mutated dinosaur with this "freak manifestation" died in such a place and way to actually be fossilized and then that fossil survived and was found by humans? It is far more likely that this was a normal transitional form and that many dinosaurs had it so that we would be able to find a fossil millions of years later.