http://robertsaunders.org.uk/wordpress/2009/03/20/the-evolution-of-feathers/ ...biology and atheism in an overly religious world... Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:25:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://robertsaunders.org.uk/wordpress/2009/03/20/the-evolution-of-feathers/comment-page-1/#comment-600 Robert Batton Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:09:22 +0000 http://www.robertsaunders.org.uk/wordpress/?p=544#comment-600 Has anyone considered whether the first feathers might have evolved as tactile organs, rather like the mystacial vibrissae of rats and mice? Even the crudest proto-feathers arranged in tufts around the mouth and eyes, along the head-neck crest, on the digits, elbows, knees, and tail, might have been more useful than vision to animals navigating arboreal and brush thickets or tall grass. Feathers might have provided early warning of the approach, bearing, and heading of predators. From such primarily tactile functions, tufts of feathers might have drifted toward usefulness in mating and fighting rituals, and more lately as sensory organs of the airfoil surfaces for sensing conditions of flight such as angle of attack, lift, banking, stalling, turbulence, and so forth. Has anyone considered whether the first feathers might have evolved as tactile organs, rather like the mystacial vibrissae of rats and mice? Even the crudest proto-feathers arranged in tufts around the mouth and eyes, along the head-neck crest, on the digits, elbows, knees, and tail, might have been more useful than vision to animals navigating arboreal and brush thickets or tall grass. Feathers might have provided early warning of the approach, bearing, and heading of predators. From such primarily tactile functions, tufts of feathers might have drifted toward usefulness in mating and fighting rituals, and more lately as sensory organs of the airfoil surfaces for sensing conditions of flight such as angle of attack, lift, banking, stalling, turbulence, and so forth.

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