| Show TRACES DESCENT OF BIRDS FROM FLYING REPTILES all birds descended from flying lylac reptiles nith ith teeth according to dr alexander wetmore assistant secretary of the smithsonian institution lie he has traced the family history of the birds back to the grotesque archaeopteryx find and arche ornis natures first attempts at bird making at the top of the scale of evolution are the songbirds song birds while the roost most primitive birds living today are the ostrich and the penguin the story of the wright brothers Is well known but bot liow how did the first lying flying reptile manage to take oft there were few airports at that time and those were not equipped with modern safety devices none of the animals or reptiles had made a trans atlantic Atlant lc light flight or a journey to the stratosphere and there were no birds to soar and glide gracefully through the air flying existed only in the minds eye of the lowly thou though 11 imaginative agi ngi native reptile and while lt it had d a good set of teeth it could not use them in such an undertaking this happened about years ago and we nye are frequently frequent y reminded that evolution can ac accomplish conS wonders in millions of years butt but it cannot he be rushed the copper heads head rattlesnakes water moccasins and black snakes of 0 the ozarks have never sprouted wings nor has any one of thern them ever been heard to sing like a mocking bird their offspring always lack both the ambition and the ability to fly but that does not mean they will always remain ns as they are arc unless indeed evolution sometimes runs into a blind alley a possibility suggested by doctor wetmore himself lie ile ventures the opinion that birds may have reached the end of the evolutionary lutio nary road because he says civilized man is disturbing the natural condit conditions lons of the earth and if birds will never become reptiles perhaps reptiles will never become birds st louis globe democrat |
