Local palaeontologist Dr Billy de Klerk says he is completely convinced that dinosaurs gave rise to birds. This is as honorary professor in environmental sciences at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Professor Theagarten Lingham-Soliar, challenges the widely accepted theory.
Local palaeontologist Dr Billy de Klerk says he is completely convinced that dinosaurs gave rise to birds. This is as honorary professor in environmental sciences at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Professor Theagarten Lingham-Soliar, challenges the widely accepted theory.
In his new book, The Vertebrate Integument Volume 1, he questions what he calls the "shabby science" behind feathered dinosaurs.
Lingham-Soliar is a palaeontologist who specialises in the integument. That is the outermost covering of an animal, including the skin, hair, scales and feathers.
His book deals primarily in the major changes that have occurred in the vertebrate integument, tracing this from the earliest marine fish-like creatures to dinosaurs up to today’s reptiles.
He dedicates a small part of his book to countering the theory that birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs.
Over the past 20 years it has become widely accepted among palaeontologists that birds evolved from dinosaurs. Lingham-Soliar has become one of the most notable critics of this theory. His contention is that certain fossils have ‘protofeathers’ that cannot be regarded as feathers due to the structure of the collagen fibres.
The science community has been reluctant to accept this view. But this does not mean Lingham-Soliar’s theory will be shut down.
De Klerk says this type of research is good for science, as it creates a sphere for alternate theories to be debated and discussed, enabling the field to grow.
The detail on the dinosaur-bird connection is not expounded upon by Lingham-Soliar. Instead the book contains a lot of his own research on neonatology and palaeontology, leaving the explanation on the origins of birds for the next book.
De Klerk emphasised that for a widely-accepted theory to change, a holistic view of it needs to be discussed and debated.
