Re: help: reptile scale to bird feathers

["Phil Donoghue" <DONOGHUE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I tried to send an email to the following effect yesterday but failed 
miserably. So here goes again....

In reply Manfred Krautter, the classic papers on the origin of 
feathers from scales are...

Maderson, P. F. A. 1972. On how an archosaurian scale might have 
given rise to an avian feather. The American Naturalist, 106, 
424-428.

Maderson, P. F. A. 1972. When? why? and how?: some speculations on 
the evolution of the vertebrate integument. American Zoologist, 12, 
159-171.

Regal, P. J. 1975. The evolutionary origin of feathers. Quart. Rev. 
Biol. 50, 35-66.

You might also like to try....

McGowan, C. 1989. Feather structure in flightless birds and its 
bearing on the origin of feathers. Journal of Zoology (London), 218, 
537-547. 

There are probably more recent papers on the subject but as far as I 
know, no firm conclusions have been reached. There is also 
(apparently) a conference on the origin and evolution of feathers in the offing.

Hope that I have been of help,

Best wishes,

Phil.
Dr. Philip Donoghue
School of Earth Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham B15 2TT
United Kingdom

Tel: 0121 414 4523
Fax: 0121 414 3971
Email: p.c.j.donoghue@bham.ac.uk