Under the microscope this icon of evolution might not have been a bird at all" (Hotz, "Bye Bye Birdie: Famed Fossil Loses Avian Perch," The Wall Street Journal, page A1, October 23, 2009).
According to the new research, inferences about growth rates made from studies of Archaeopteryx's ancient fossilized bones show it developed much more slowly than modern birds.
Archaeopteryx isn't the only evolutionary icon losing its claim as the ancestor of birds. In recent months we've seen paleontologists increasingly arguing that the entire clade of dinosaurs should no longer be considered ancestral to birds.
As the WSJ article states: There are lingering doubts that birds today are descendants of dinosaurs.
(My granddaughter and I watch the Dinosaur Train on PBS and their latest program just stated that birds were descendants of dinosaurs. Just who can you trust, eh? We'll have to have a talk.) : )
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