Re: [asa] Did dinosaurs become chickens?

Alexanian, Moorad wrote:
> A naive question. How can dinosaurs evolve into chickens if the extinction of dinosaurs occurred suddenly?
> Moorad
>

Presuming that you are posing the second question, I'll take a stab at
it until the experts step in.

Perhaps the posed (second) question presumes too much simplicity or
sequential, non-overlapping linearity in the process. e.g. We've heard
the question: "if apes evolved into man, why are there still apes?"
which shows no understanding of what evolution really claims. The
comet/meteorite event of 65mya would be a fairly sudden event, but
obviously paleobiologists must not be claiming that every last living
thing of dinosaur origins or descent died in that one event. In fact,
it may well have been that very event that suddenly made it adaptively
favorable for the smaller progenitors of present day birds.

--merv

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Received on Fri Jan 30 00:43:18 2009