Instead, the team believes birds first grew these feathers for other purposes, such as insulation or mating display.
It is believed Bird held a simmering grudge over money from their late father Joe.
Klaus Stohr, who runs the global influenza programme at the World Health Organisation, says that very few people believe bird flu can be controlled in Asia in the next few years.
"Even when I had USC kids in my cab and I would try to tell them my grandfather's story, they really didn't listen or believe," Bird said.
Many paleontologists believe birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs.
"I couldn't believe birds were still singing, the world turning.
"It was the first time I had reason to believe birds and porcupines interact," he says.
In 1886, Gundlach reported that he believed birds persisted in southern Cuba, which led Greenway to suggest that the species survived until 1885.
THE augurs of ancient Rome predicted fortune and ruin based on the flight and behavior of birds, believing that bird activity revealed the hidden patterns of life and the plans of the gods.
Fulford believes the bird, though wonderful, is actually part of a monumental sculpture of a god or an emperor, which escaped being melted down when the great basilica became a scrapyard and workshop.
