The Dinosaur Feather

Birds
would silence Helland. Clive knew that the Dane nearly always relied on the evolution of the manus, the bird’s hand, to illustrate the relationship between birds and dinosaurs, and neither Helland nor Clive’s other opponents had given much thought to the evolution of the feather. Consequently, Clive had decided the feather would be his trump card. He had studied the evolution of the feather for years. From now on, no one would be able to argue that feathers on present-day birds had anything to do with the feather-like structures found on dinosaurs.
    When the book was published, it went straight to the bestseller lists in Canada and the US. Every dinosaur-mad amateur biologist on the planet bought a copy. However, Clive’s fellowscientists ignored it. It received only a few peer reviews in the more serious journals, and, on each occasion, in a rather dismissive tone, as though it was a curiosity to fill column inches rather than an important scientific work. Only
Scientific Today
allocated it a half-decent amount of space, but even so Clive was dissatisfied. He tried to call Jack to find out why his book had received such miserly coverage and been bounced to page 22, but Jack was unavailable.
    Clive volunteered to speak at every upcoming symposium and carefully rewrote every chapter of
The Birds
as individual papers that he submitted simultaneously to scientific journals all over the world. He thought about his father. Had his father still been alive, he would have been proud. The reactions came just under a month later. Clive was prepared. He had already drafted his counter arguments because he knew exactly where his opponents would attack: the crescent-shaped carpus, the reduction of fingers, the ascending process of the talus bone and the alleged feathers.
    Clive devoured the new journals, convinced that his opponents would go straight for the anatomical discussion. However, apart from two responses written by minor scientists, none of his opponents criticised Clive’s anatomical arguments; instead they focused solely on poor editorial control whose
lethargy had allowed Clive Freeman’s original contribution to be published, thus causing a deeply regrettable undermining of the general credibility of the journals. The nature of the relationship between birds and dinosaurs isn’t a subject worthy of a serious medium, because there is nothing to discuss. Birds are present-day dinosaurs. The end
.
    In thirty-seven different publications.
    Clive was consumed by a boiling rage. They were accusing him of incompetence. They were accusing him, Clive Freeman, a world-famous palaeobiologist and a professor at the University of British Columbia, of scientific incompetence.
    The most arrogant response came, not surprisingly, from Lars Helland who, on this occasion, listed an unknown Erik Tybjerg as his co-author. This undoubtedly meant that Helland had told one of his PhD students to write his contribution. But the worst was yet to come.
    The ultimate insult was that Helland’s reaction appeared in
Scientific Today
.
    Clive called Jack immediately to request a meeting.
    When Clive saw Jack three days later, he was suffering from a stomach upset. They had arranged to meet at a bar across the road from the office of
Scientific Today
and Jack was already there when Clive arrived. He was wearing dark trousers and a thin T-shirt, and a newspaper rested on his casually arranged legs. Clive’s stomach lurched when Jack looked up, and he stared at Jack’s lips. Clive slammed the journal on the table.
    ‘What the hell is this?’ he demanded.
    ‘Clive, there are five other people on the editorial committee besides me,’ Jack said quietly.
    Clive turned on his heel and left.
    In the autumn of 2001 Clive was a guest speaker in Chicago. Normally, he kept strictly to material from
The Birds
, but the American audience was remarkably receptive, and Clive expanded on his feather argument. Asymmetrical feathers were linked to flight in present-day birds and dinosaurs hadn’thad feathers – obviously – firstly, because they didn’t fly, secondly, because they were cold-blooded animals, and thirdly:
    ‘Can you imagine
Jurassic Park
– with chickens?’
    His joke brought the house down. Clive concluded with a challenge:
    ‘Show me a feathered dinosaur, and I will personally beg forgiveness from every advocate of the dinosaur theory!’ He flapped his arms like a bird trying to take off. The laughter refused to die