Hi All
Maybe I'm confused, I thought that the main controversy within paleontology
was when did birds evolve. The question is whether they evolved fairly early
on as a separate branch or evolved as a continuation of a dinosaur branch. I
think there are some "heavy hitters" for both theories. The recent finds in
China seem to argue for the late continuation theory.
>From my extremely limited reading, the controversy seems to grow out of
having limited data and lots of theory build upon the limited data.
Anyone interested in the topic might want to listen to an NPR broadcast, on
Talk of the Nation, June 26, 1998. All the previous broadcasts are archived
and you can listen to them if you have Real Audio (free download). NPR is at
www.npr.org

Click on programs, go to Talk of the Nation (not the Science Friday program,
as you'd expect), then into the archives.

Cheers
Gail Spitler
Johnsons Landing, BC
spitler at wkpowerlink.com