A fossil skeleton of a dinosaur called Sinosauropteryx, preserved in volcanic ash, was discovered in Liaoning, China, in 1996. Interestingly, the fossil included a pattern of fine lines surrounding the skeletal bones. Some paleontologists interpret the lines as evidence that Sinosauropteryx had feathers. However, critics have opposed the idea that Sinosauropteryx was a feathered dinosaur, citing several reasons.
First, the critics points out that the fine lines may not even represent functional structures of a living dinosaur, but rather structures that were formed after the animal’s death. After the animal died and was buried in volcanic ash, its skin may have decomposed into fibers. The skin fibers then became preserved as lines in the fossil; the lines were misinterpreted as evidence of feathers.
Second, even if the fine lines are remains of real structures of a Sinosauropteryx, scientists cannot tell with certainty what part of the dinosaur’s anatomy the structures were. Many dinosaurs had frills, ornamental fan-shaped structures growing out of some parts of their bodies. Some of the critics argue that the lines surrounding the skeleton are much more likely to be fossilized remains of frills than remains of feathers.
A third objection is based on the fact that the usual functions of feathers are to help animals fly or regulate their internal temperature. However, the structures represented by the lines in the Sinosauropteryx fossil were mostly located along the backbone and the tail of the animal. This would have made the structures quite useless for flight and of very limited use in thermoregulation. This suggests that the lines do not represent feathers.
The reading passage refute the idea about the discovering of fine lines in fossil were the indication of feathers by demonstrating several counterarguments. The lecturer, however, is strongly convinced that the lines could represent the feather through address the questions advanced by the reading.
To start with, the reading proposes that the lines may derive from the decomposition of a died dinosaur's skin instead of a part of a living one. The lecture does not believe the point for the reason that the fossils that buried at the same site doesn't show the same structure as the kind of decomposition. Therefore, these lines are possibly be the well-preserved feathers.
Move on, the reading proposes that the lines could be the frills rather than feathers. The lecturers state a counterpoint and propose futher indication that the apparent chemical difference between frills and feathers. feathers contains protein that frills doesn't.
Last but not least important, the reading passage puts emphasis on such a fact that the lines were around the backbone and tail of the sinosauropteryx can not play the role of helping the dinosaurs fly or regulating the temperature. The lecturer, by contrast, mention the colorful feathers of peacock as an example. The peacock has the colorful leathers to attract male. Recent analysis has found that sinosauropteryx's structure are also colorful, can be the evidence of display.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-12-28 | Salehi | 3 | view |
| 2019-12-27 | Bonjourkmm | 88 | view |
| 2019-12-17 | shrijan | 3 | view |
| 2019-11-05 | Seema Modak | 71 | view |
| 2019-11-04 | alta | 80 | view |
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?It is important to know about events happening around the world, even if it is unlikely that they will affect your daily life.Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer. 83
- Asteroids are large space objects made of rock and ice. There are hundreds of thousands of asteroids in our solar system. Though we often hear ideas about establishing colonies of humans to live and work on our Moon or our neighboring planet, Mars, some t 83
- A fossil skeleton of a dinosaur called Sinosauropteryx, preserved in volcanic ash, was discovered in Liaoning, China, in 1996. Interestingly, the fossil included a pattern of fine lines surrounding the skeletal bones. Some paleontologists interpret the li 88
- Governments should not fund any scientific research whose consequences are unclear. 50
- Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?If people have the opportunity to get a secure job, they should take it right away rather than wait for a job that would be more satisfying. 73
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 4, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
The reading passage refute the idea about th...
^^
Line 5, column 246, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
...he fossils that buried at the same site doesnt show the same structure as the kind of ...
^^^^^^
Line 5, column 343, Rule ID: BEEN_PART_AGREEMENT[2]
Message: Consider using a past participle here: 'been'.
Suggestion: been
...on. Therefore, these lines are possibly be the well-preserved feathers. Move...
^^
Line 9, column 220, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: Feathers
...difference between frills and feathers. feathers contains protein that frills doesnt. ...
^^^^^^^^
Line 9, column 258, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: doesn't
.... feathers contains protein that frills doesnt. Last but not least important, th...
^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, however, if, may, so, therefore, well, kind of, to start with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 8.0 10.4613686534 76% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 5.0 5.04856512141 99% => OK
Conjunction : 5.0 7.30242825607 68% => OK
Relative clauses : 9.0 12.0772626932 75% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 10.0 22.412803532 45% => OK
Preposition: 25.0 30.3222958057 82% => OK
Nominalization: 7.0 5.01324503311 140% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1211.0 1373.03311258 88% => OK
No of words: 226.0 270.72406181 83% => More content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.35840707965 5.08290768461 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 3.87727950738 4.04702891845 96% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.99663384387 2.5805825403 116% => OK
Unique words: 131.0 145.348785872 90% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.579646017699 0.540411800872 107% => OK
syllable_count: 364.5 419.366225166 87% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 12.0 13.0662251656 92% => OK
Sentence length: 18.0 21.2450331126 85% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 51.7547636025 49.2860985944 105% => OK
Chars per sentence: 100.916666667 110.228320801 92% => OK
Words per sentence: 18.8333333333 21.698381199 87% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.0 7.06452816374 85% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 5.0 4.19205298013 119% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 1.0 4.45695364238 22% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 7.0 4.27373068433 164% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.118991784814 0.272083759551 44% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.038498310455 0.0996497079465 39% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0396710336814 0.0662205650399 60% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0700387142568 0.162205337803 43% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0381322571543 0.0443174109184 86% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.2 13.3589403974 99% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 53.21 53.8541721854 99% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 11.0289183223 93% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.81 12.2367328918 113% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.72 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 60.0 63.6247240618 94% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.0 10.7273730684 131% => OK
gunning_fog: 9.2 10.498013245 88% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.2008830022 125% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 88.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 26.5 Out of 30
---------------------
Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.