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Show TRACES DESCENT OF BIRDS FROM FLYING REPTILES All birds descended from flying reptiles with teeth, according to Dr. Alexander Wetmore, asslatant secretary secre-tary of the Smithsonian Institution. Ho has traced the family history of the birds back to the grotesque archeopteryx and archeornls, nature's first attempts at bird making. At the top of the scnle of evolution are the songbirds, while the most primitive primi-tive birds living today are the ostrich os-trich and the penguin. The story of the Wright brothers Is well known. But how did the first 'lying reptile manage to "take off?" There were few airports at tlint time and those were not equipped with modern safety devices. None of the anlmnls or reptiles hnd made a trans-Atlantlc trans-Atlantlc flight or a journey to the stratosphere and there were no birds to sonr and glide gracefully through the air. Flying existed only In the mind's eye of the lowly though Imaginative Im-aginative reptile, and while it bad a good set of teeth, It could not use them In such an undertaking. This happened about 150,000,000 yenrs ago, and we are frequently reminded re-minded that evolution can accomplish wonders In millions of years. But It ennnot be riished. The copperheads, copper-heads, rattlesnakes, water moccasins and black snakes of the Ozarks hnve never sprouted wings, nor has any one of them ever been heard to sing like a mocking bird. Their offspring always lack both the ambition nnd the nblllty to fly. But that does not mean they will always remain as they nre, unless, Indeed, evolution sometimes runs Into a blind alley, a possibility suggested by Doctor Wet-more Wet-more himself. He ventures the opinion that birds may have reached the end of the evolutionary evo-lutionary road, because he says, civilized civ-ilized man Is disturbing the nntural conditions of the earth. And If birds will never become reptiles, perhaps reptiles will never become birds. St. Louis Globe-Democrat. |