Please disband BAND

"The Four-Winged Dinosaur" is a Nova documentary about a bizarre fossil discovery in China. Come and meet the Microraptor, a four-winged dinosaur! Yes, really. Naturally, a creature of this kind is bound to create some chaos in the family tree. Reminds me of Homo florensiensis a.k.a. the Hobbit. This time, however, the problems are in the family tree of birds and paravian dinosaurs, including the "raptors" popularized by the movie "Jurassic Park".

The idea that birds are dinosaurs is, of course, immediately compelling - certainly in popular imagination - so the conflicts were bound to be rather fierce when scientists who deny the bird-dino connection tried to use Microraptor to their advantage. Those who do believe that birds are descended from dinosaurs immediately hit back. The documentary skilfully pits the two groups against each other, as they examine the fossil evidence, build models of how Microraptor might have looked like, and bicker in general.

Somehow, the whole thing feels rather forced, since the deniers (informally known as BAND or Birds Are Not Dinosaurs) are a very small minority. There's no real contest. That being said, "The Four-Winged Dinosaur" is nevertheless quite entertaining. Come and watch the boys fight it out. I wonder what the Microraptor would have said, had it known what conflicts it would cause millions of years later? I suppose it would gently fly away towards the setting sun, on all its four wings...