Read The Dinosaur Feather for Free Online Page A

enraged both Tybjerg and Helland – that it was embarrassing.
    In a fit of despair she started reading Freeman’s book
The Birds
from start to finish. Dr Tybjerg had mentioned it several times and drily remarked that when Anna was capable of pulling it apart, she would be ready for her viva. Anna had had the book lying on her desk for weeks. Every day when she left, she put it in her bag, intending to read it, and every night she managed seven lines before falling asleep. Time to bite the bullet now. Suddenly spurred on by the promise that everything would fall into place once she had read it, she immersed herself in the book.
    Freeman’s book was a masterpiece. It was filled with wonderful colour photographs and illustrations, and throughout the text he argued seriously and soberly. He backed up his views with well-argued scientific conclusions, made references to existing literature and allowed for doubt to remain where certain points had yet to be decided. Had it not been for Helland, and especially Tybjerg’s ardent assertion that Freeman was wrong, Anna would have bought Freeman’s sister-group theory on the spot. Freeman was without a doubt someone who knew what he was talking about, and this was the man she was supposed to ‘
wipe the floor
’ with? When she had finished reading
The Birds
she had eighty-two pages of handwritten notes and hadn’t grown a tad wiser; rather she had become truly terrified of the task that lay ahead of her. With
The Birds
in her arms and her heart pounding, she decided to make a clean breast of it to Dr Tybjerg.
    Dr Tybjerg was waiting for her in the refectory at the Natural History Museum and Anna didn’t even have time to sit down in the chair opposite him before her misgivings poured out of her.
    ‘Dr Tybjerg, I fail to see why Professor Freeman’s scientific position is wrong . . . I think his argument sounds convincing.’
    Dr Tybjerg pursed his lips.
    ‘Well, then you haven’t read enough,’ he said with Zenlike calm.
    ‘It’s taken me three weeks to read
The Birds
,’ Anna groaned.
    ‘Why on earth did you read all of it? You can flick through it. That’s more than enough for anyone.’ Dr Tybjerg took the book from her.
    ‘This book is a flash in the pan, nothing more.’ He quickly thumbed the pages. Then he smiled. ‘But I do understand why it can seem a little overwhelming. Freeman appears convincing because he has convinced himself. Such people are always the worst.’ Dr Tybjerg paused and then looked as if he had come up with a plan.
    ‘Drop the book,’ he ordered her. ‘Instead, read at least fifteen papers written by people who argue that birds are present-day dinosaurs, and fifteen papers by people who disagree. This will make everything clear to you. And stay away from books for the time being. Many of them are good and you can return to them later, but this one,’ Dr Tybjerg slammed
The Birds
on the table, ‘is nothing but tarted-up propaganda.’
    Anna exhaled through her nostrils.
    ‘And one final thing,’ he added, giving her a short, sharp look. ‘You need to assume that I’m right. You’ll be convinced in time, but until that happens you need to accept my position. Otherwise you’ll quite simply lose your way.’
    Dr Tybjerg’s face told her the meeting was over. Anna nodded.
    Anna spent the next three days searching the database for published papers at the University Library for Natural Science and Health Studies in Nørre Allé. She kept reminding herself that Tybjerg was right.
    The first day was an exercise in futility. There were tonnes of papers for and against, but she didn’t come across anything which convinced her that Helland and Tybjerg’s argument was more valid than Freeman’s. It wasn’t until day two that thingsimproved. She had compiled over forty papers at that point, she had photocopied them and spread them out on the table in front of her, and she was just about to give into frustration again when a tiny flicker