Are current critiques of the theropod origin of birds science? Rebuttal to Feduccia (2002)

Auk, The, Apr 2003 by Prum, Richard O

In my Perspectives essay, I wrote that, "it is time to end debate on the theropod origin of birds, and to proceed to investigate all aspects of the biology of birds in light of their theropod origin." In his response, Feduccia documents that the scientific debate is indeed over because current critics of the theropod origin of birds are not doing science. The unrelenting progress and success of the theropod hypothesis in recent years is not the result of an overzealous cladistic conspiracy, but the congruence of multiple lines of evidence from many workers toward a coherent understanding of the origins of birds, feathers, and now flight (Prum 2003). In future decades, historians of science will doubtless look back on this episode in ornithological history as a classic example of the sociology of science. Ornithologists should to let these unworthy and unscientific arguments fade into scientific history, and dedicate themselves to the fascinating new scientific frontier of establishing a thorough historical understanding the origins of avian biology.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank R. Dahn, Matthew Harris, M. Robbins, R. Shafer-Landau, T. Peterson, and G. Wagner for suggestions and discussion. X. Xing and Z. Zhonghe kindly gave permission to reproduce their photo of Microraptor gui.

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