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 paleontologists believe that the fine lines discovered in the fossil skeleton of a dinosaur called Sinosauropteryx are evidence of feathers. The reading passage highlights the reasons behind the opposition of critics to paleontologists’ claims. On the other hand, the lecture refutes the critics’ claims and agrees with the paleontologists for the following reasons.
Firstly, critics in the reading passage mention that fine lines present in the fossil skeleton are because of the decomposition of the dinosaur’s skin after death into fibers. Thus, the fine lines are not an indication of feathers but decomposed skin. However, the lecture debates this claim and states that fossils of other animals buried in the same site are well preserved. She goes on and emphasizes that whereas other animals didn’t decompose, they still show fine lines in their fossils. So, the claim that fine lines don’t correspond to feathers is not well-founded
Secondly, the author implies that critics are uncertain about which anatomical structures the fine lines imply. The critics believe that the fine lines are indicative of frills, not feathers because frills are very common features of the dinosaur skeleton. The professor falsifies this claim with fact that there is a chemical difference between frills and feathers. She points out that analysis was done on feathers and frills. The results of this analysis show that feathers have a protein called beta keratin which frills lack. Also, she mentioned that further analysis of the fine lines indicated the existence of beta keratin. Accordingly, the critics’ argument that fine lines are frills, not feathers is not valid.
Lastly, the critics in the reading passage illustrate that fine lines were discovered in their backbone and tail rather than the wings. Thus, it can’t be feathers because it doesn’t serve its function for flying and thermoregulation. Meanwhile, the lecture disagrees that the only purpose of feathers is flying and thermal balancing. She interprets this by giving an example of the ostrich that has feathers on its backbone and tails. The professor further explains that the ostrich uses this feather for display. She assumes that dinosaurs used their feathers for the sake of display. Because the fossils proved that the dinosaur’s feathers were orange and bright.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
accordingly, also, but, first, firstly, however, if, lastly, second, secondly, so, still, thus, well, whereas, while, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 10.4613686534 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 1.0 5.04856512141 20% => OK
Conjunction : 11.0 7.30242825607 151% => OK
Relative clauses : 20.0 12.0772626932 166% => OK
Pronoun: 36.0 22.412803532 161% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 37.0 30.3222958057 122% => OK
Nominalization: 10.0 5.01324503311 199% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1990.0 1373.03311258 145% => OK
No of words: 368.0 270.72406181 136% => OK
Chars per words: 5.40760869565 5.08290768461 106% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.37987740619 4.04702891845 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.79032028401 2.5805825403 108% => OK
Unique words: 173.0 145.348785872 119% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.470108695652 0.540411800872 87% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 599.4 419.366225166 143% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 3.25607064018 215% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 14.0 8.23620309051 170% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 21.0 13.0662251656 161% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 21.2450331126 80% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 32.8103877141 49.2860985944 67% => OK
Chars per sentence: 94.7619047619 110.228320801 86% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.5238095238 21.698381199 81% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.42857142857 7.06452816374 91% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 4.33554083885 185% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 8.0 4.45695364238 179% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.232238146811 0.272083759551 85% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0814587066629 0.0996497079465 82% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.092784712325 0.0662205650399 140% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.166435609801 0.162205337803 103% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0609580111439 0.0443174109184 138% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.8 13.3589403974 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 54.22 53.8541721854 101% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 13.8 12.2367328918 113% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.26 8.42419426049 98% => OK
difficult_words: 88.0 63.6247240618 138% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 10.7273730684 84% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.8 10.498013245 84% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 Out of 30
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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.