Feathers Fly in Beijing

news meeting report Feathers fly in Beijing

The question of whether birds evolved from dinosaurs arouses strong opinions. Rex Dalton reports on a scientific meeting that at times bore more resemblance to a political sparring match.

hen ornithologists and palaeon- tologists rolled into Beijing earlier Wthis month for the fifth quadren- nial meeting of the Society of Avian Paleon- tology and Evolution, it seemed like a per- fect opportunity to try and resolve the long- running debate over whether birds evolved from dinosaurs. Northeast China has produced a wealth of bird and dinosaur fossils in recent years, Bone China: this skull and these have been used to explore the links of a feathered dinosaur, between the two groups. At the meeting, Caudipteryx zoui, is one Chinese scientists showed off some newly of the exciting new discovered specimens, which might help to fossils emerging from answer important evolutionary questions. northeast China. But by the close of the meeting, hosted by Beijing’s Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology evolutionary origin as the hair-like integu- Hutchinson, who studies at Berkeley with and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), the divi- mentary filaments seen on many dinosaur Kevin Padian, a leading proponent of the idea sions between those who believe birds fossils, he was accused by Storrs Olson, head that birds evolved from dinosaurs, presented evolved from dinosaurs and those who dis- of ornithology at the National Museum of data on hind-limb evolution. Hutchinson agree appeared greater than ever. Several Natural History in Washington DC, of engag- compares bones of fossils and existing species attendees were disappointed that progressive ing in “ideological mumbo jumbo”. for scarring to determine where muscles scientific debate was stifled by entrenched Olson is a leader in the camp that believes attach. He uses this information to generate a opinions, raised voices and strident words. “I that birds evolved separately from dinosaurs. computer model of the biomechanics of hind think a lot more interesting issues could have He rejects the phylogenetic analysis used by limbs. As an example, he presented prelimi- come up, instead of going over the same old Prum and others to build evolutionary links nary data on how much hind-limb muscle tired stories, like the origin of flight,” says between birds and dinosaurs on the basis of mass would be needed to support a Tyran- John Hutchinson, a doctoral student at the shared characteristics. Throughout the meet- nosaurus rex. Hutchinson hopes that the University of California at Berkeley. “It is like ing, Olson and like-minded scientists wore modelling process will be useful for exploring the field hasn’t moved on.” badges saying “Birds are Not Dinosaurs”. the links between birds and dinosaurs. “The time is now to stop debating and pro- But this ‘BAND’ group was not alone in Kevin Middleton, a doctoral student in ceed with learning about the biology of the adopting tactics that had more in common evolutionary biology at Brown University in origin of birds,” agrees Richard Prum, an evo- with political point-scoring than scientific Providence, Rhode Island, described his lutionary biologist at the University of Kansas discourse. When Alan Feduccia, a palaeobiol- studies of the feet of birds and dinosaurs. He in Lawrence. But when Prum argued at the ogist at the University of North Carolina at has focused on the evolution of the first digit, meeting that birds’ feathers have the same Chapel Hill, gave a talk on why the theory of or hallux, the orientation of which is used to bird evolution from dinosaurs should be help classify species as birds or dinosaurs. The rejected, his argument was likened by some bone is reversed in perching birds, but Mid- opponents to those of creationists. Chris dleton has produced evidence that it is not McGowan, curator of palaeobiology at the only reversed, but also rotated along its axis. REX DALTON Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, said cut- “I’m fairly confident the hallux is much more tingly that he had not enjoyed such a perfor- complex than we thought,” says Middleton. mance since he last heard a talk by Duane “These are examples of the next genera- Gish, senior vice-president of the Institute for tion of research that will provide tremen- Creation Research in Santee, near San Diego. dous progress,” says Prum. And the speci- But between such acrimonious exchanges, mens being uncovered in northeast China new lines of research did emerge. Mary are likely to be key to this progress. During Schweitzer of Montana State University in the meeting, one IVPP scientist, Fucheng Bozeman described how she has looked for Zhang, presented tantalizing slides of about evidence of feathers on a Mongolian dinosaur half a dozen undescribed species. fossil, Shuvuuia deserti, using fluorescently But if the Beijing meeting is anything to go labelled antibodies for the protein keratin. by, any resolution of the debate over the origin Schweitzer detected ȋ-keratin, the basic com- of birds may take years to emerge. When the ponent of most feathers, but significantly she proponents get together in the same room, found no evidence of Ȋ-keratin, which does they seem to generate more heat than light. I Olson: BAND leader rejects the bird–dino link. not occur in feathers. Rex Dalton is Nature’s West Coast US Correspondent.

992 NATURE | VOL 405 | 29JUNE 2000 | www.nature.com