None of the evidence they cite are preserved well enough to be convincing. Hans-Dieter Sues, a paleontologist at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, says he studied the Longisquama fossil in his laboratory for months two years ago and he is sure the mysterious appendages are scales, not feathers. The structures are solid and they have overlap with adjoining scales. Still, Jones believes the feathers on the Longisquama are so well developed that it is likely that the first feathers appeared on reptiles many generations before Longisquama came along. He also argues that the Longisquama appears to have had enough control over its appendages to use them to extend its glide from tree to tree.
Sues remains unconvinced.
They were probably used for display. And Jacques Gauthier of Yale University, an expert on the evolution of dinosaurs, said the new study is going to have little effect on the theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs, an idea that can be traced back through the work of hundreds of scientists over many decades. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The Web Copyright 2000 ABC News Internet Ventures.