A DEITY couldn鈥檛 have planned it better. Just two years after On The Origin of Species was published, a fossil found in Germany gave Charles Darwin鈥檚 controversial ideas an almighty boost. Archaeopteryx sported a mouthful of teeth and armfuls of feathers 鈥� facts that Darwin鈥檚 supporters immediately leapt on as evidence that birds descended from dinosaurs.
This week, Darwin鈥檚 鈥渟trange bird鈥� has finally lost its perch on the lowermost branch of the bird evolutionary tree (see 鈥淎rchaeopteryx knocked off its perch as first bird鈥�). But we shouldn鈥檛 mourn Archaeopteryx; the discovery of feathered dinosaurs in China in the 1990s delivered decisive evidence that birds are descended from dinosaurs. Instead, we should celebrate the fact that science is still doing what it does best: revising cherished ideas in the light of new evidence.
