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Do not use without permission.
| Evoltionists believe that reptiles gave rise to dinosaurs, and then to birds. But according to scripture birds were created on Day 5 and both dinosaurs and reptiles were created on Day 6 (the same day as other land animals and humans). Many links between dinosaurs and birds have been proposed, but none stand up to detailed examination. All they have found are fossils of dinosaurs and fossils of birds, but none are inbetween. |
 Picture by Dan L. Used with permission. |
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This is an artists depiction of a fossil bird called "Archaeopteryx" (are-key-AWP-tur-iks). This creature has been used by Evolutionists to promote the idea that dinosaurs evolved into birds. They claim that it is a transitional form with physical features intermediate of both dinosaurs and birds.
The Archaeopteryx found in 1860 is a bird with what Evolutionists consider "reptile-like" features. Archaeopteryx has teeth in its bill, claws on its wing, and has a long bony tail. These features are claimed to be reminiscent of their dinosaur ancestors.
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Evolutionists claimed that Archaeopteryx is 150 million years old, and upheld it as the missing link between dinosaurs and birds (Creationists believe this date is way off – Click HERE to read my page on Carbon dating for more info).
That is, until fully formed birds were found in layers of strata much deeper. By evolutionist standpoint, these "fully formed" birds date at 225 million years old. This is 75 million years before the so-called missing link between the two is said to have appeared.
As far as the physical features, Archaeopteryx was a bird with teeth. Though rare, at least 5 other species of birds also have teeth. This doesn't mean they used to be dinosaurs. Not even all dinosaurs had teeth! - Well, at least not the really old ones. 
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Many birds living today have claws on their wings. The hoatzin is one such bird. |
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Another is the touraco | 
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| Even the ostrich has claws on its wings, but no one claims it is the missing link between dinosaurs and birds. The simple truth is that God made some birds with claws on their wings and some without. |  |
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| What about the tail? Well, even the penguin has un-fused tail vertebrae. This does not mean it used to be a Pengu-saurus.
(do you like my picture?)
Just a little side note here, I wrote a paper on Archaeopteryx for a class last semester (2000), and was criticized for the above comment about the "penqu-saurus". – my "teacher" didn't find it very funny. - Oh well |
The feathers of Archaeopteryx are not "half feather / half scale". They are 100% fully formed feathers.
Some have suggested that bird wings evolved from frayed dinosaur scales. They point out the fact that both are made of the protein keratin. Of course the importance of this is over stressed. Hair, nails and our skin are also made of keratin.
"Feather proteins (a-keratins) are biochemically different from skin and scale proteins (a-keratins)."
(David Menton with Carl Wieland
First published in: Creation Ex Nihilo 16(4):16-19, June-August 1994)
If Archaeopteryx has anything that modern birds do not it is because they are more complex, having lived closer to the time of creation than birds alive today.
The bottom line is, the Archaeopteryx is, and always was a bird.
"Paleontologists have tried to turn Archaeopteryx into an earth-bound, feathered dinosaur," Feduccia says. "But it’s not. It is a bird, a perching bird. And no amount of 'paleobabble' is going to change that."
Allan Feduccia, Professor of biology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Archaeopteryx: Early Bird Catches a Can of Worms", Science, Vol. 259, 5 February 1993, p. 764 (source:AIG web site )
Realizing this to be true, some Evolutionists have abandoned Archaeopteryx as a missing link. Too bad they won't also abandon the whole dinosaur to bird theory. Instead they sought out another dinosaur to bird link.
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This brings us to "Pro-avis"
Unlike the fully formed bird Archaeopteryx, the Pro-avis is now one of the new "links" between dinosaurs and birds. This creature is said to have frayed scales, which are said to be on their way to becoming wings and feathers. Some teachers tell their students that this dinosaur actually evolved wings, after millions of years of chasing and attempting to catch bugs. This creature would have been rather surprised, when one day it realized it could fly. |
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Surely this is the transitional form that the evolutionists are looking for, right?
Well, not exactly.
Though some animals are known only by a few reconstructed bones, or bone fragments, the Pro-avis is not known by either of these things. The pro-avis simply never existed at all. It was a purely hypothetical creature. Constructed from pure imagination. It is based on a fossil they someday "hope to find".
This is truly amazing. If you can't find a missing link, then imagine one.
Everyday students are taught about pro-avis and animals like it, as if they are true missing links. Sounds like poor science to me.
Because both "Archaeopteryx" and "Pro-avis" are no longer considered missing links, a new transitional form between dinosaurs and birds had to be found.
This brings us to "Caudipteryx zoui" and "Protoarchaeopteryx robusta".
| Just a few years ago (June 24, 1998) newspaper headlines all over the world upheld a fossilized creature named "Caudipteryx" as the "new missing link". These turkey-sized fossils were found in China.
Here is a picture of the fossilized bones. |
I believe the very presence of these fossils is evidence of a worldwide flood, not evidence of evolution.
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Both Caudipteryx zoui and Protoarchaeopteryx robusta are said to have
feathers on their arms and tails. Caudipteryx is compared to a peacock with long plumage fanning out at the tail.
This model was created for the National Geographic Society. |
Philip Currie of the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology (Drumheller, Alberta Canada) had this to say about Caudipteryx:
"For the first time we have something that is unquestionably a dinosaur with unquestionable feathers. So what we have is a missing link between meat eating dinosaurs and the earliest bird.."
That's funny. Just a few years ago they said the same thing about Archaeopteryx. In fact little mention was given in the papers to Archaeopteryx, the previous "missing link". It seems the Evolutionists want this prior "link" to disappear. They are embarrassed to have believed it was a true transitional form, yet many will not publicly admit they were wrong. This is dishonorable to say the least.
The few papers that did mention Archaeopteryx now say it was the "first bird", instead of the missing link to birds.
Someday not too far in the future, Caudipteryx will be swept away by a new find. And all those who upheld Caudipteryx will pretend they never heard its name.
Even today, many Evolutionists are admitting that these new finds are nothing more than birds.
So those who believe in evolution are still searching for a missing link between dinosaurs and birds.
Maybe instead of searching for missing links that don't exist, they should instead search their hearts. Dinosaurs did not evolve into birds or anything else.
Comment from a reader:
"It's fairly well known that dinosaurs did not evolve into birds. however, birds and dinosaurs did share a common ancestor during the Triassic Period, roughly 220 MYA."
B. Adcock 6/14/01
Response: I understand the distinction between saying that dinosaurs evolved from birds vs. saying that they evolved seperatly sharing a common ancestor somewhere back in time. But from a biblical point of view birds were Created on Day 5, and then land animals including dinosaurs were created on day 6. The bible does not allow for millions of years, nor for evolution. I believe dinosaurs and birds were created fully formed not as something inbetween, and only minor variation and speciation has occured in these creatures. Not evolution.
Genesis chapter 1, verse 20 says that on the fifth day of creation, God said:
"Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of
heaven.
(Verse 21) And God created great whales, and every living creature that moves,
which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind and every winged fowl after his kind; and God saw that it was good."
On day five God made the fish, the great whales, the plesiosaurs, and the birds.
On day six God made the animals that live on land. This includes the dinosaurs.
"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind, and it was so."
Genesis 1:24
Dinosaurs and birds have always lived together. One is not an ancestor to the other. In fact birds were created one day before the dinosaurs and other land animals. They were both instantly created by God, and are an expression of his infinite knowledge, and beauty.
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| Here is an article from January 25, 2000 which appeared in "USA today" showing a recent link between dinosaur and birds that was shown to be a fraud. |
A recent issue of "Science News" described a set of fossil footprints in north-west Argentina that are "remarkably similar to those left by modern shorebirds" (Science News, July 27, 2002, Vol 162)
These footprints are also described in the journal Nature, June 27, 2002
The problem for evolutionists is that these footprints are said to be 212 million years old. They claim birds did not appear in the fossil record until 60 million years later!
Of course the implications for the alleged dino-bird links in all the years inbetween are devasting to evolution.
New claims for a feathered dinosaur have been made. There is nothing in the creation model that says that dinosaurs could not have feathers, but the creation model does predict that no fossils will be found of a creature that is inbetween dinosaur and bird.
It is strange that the new find "Microraptor gui" was found in China. The very same place that the fraudulent Archaeoraptor came from.
Dr Alan Feduccia was interviewed by Discover magazine about the new "Microraptor gui"
Discover: So far, only one feathered dinosaur, Archaeoraptor, has been publicly acknowledged as a forgery. You think there are others?
Feduccia: Archaeoraptor is just the tip of the iceberg. There are scores of fake fossils out there, and they have cast a dark shadow over the whole field. When you go to these fossil shows, it’s difficult to tell which ones are faked and which ones are not. I have heard that there is a fake-fossil factory in northeastern China, in Liaoning Province, near the deposits where many of these recent alleged feathered dinosaurs were found.
Journals like Nature don’t require specimens to be authenticated, and the specimens immediately end up back in China, so nobody can examine them. They may be miraculous discoveries, they may be missing links as they are claimed, but there is no way to authenticate any of this stuff.
Discover: Why would anyone fake a fossil?
Feduccia: Money. The Chinese fossil trade has become a big business. These fossil forgeries have been sold on the black market for years now, for huge sums of money. Anyone who can produce a good fake stands to profit.
| I think that it is possible that some dinosaurs may have had feathers. It would be no different than spiders having hair like a mammal. I think God made a lot of animals with similar structures. This does not mean that they were related or evolved from a common ancestor. |  |
Would you like more information on alleged transitional forms between dinosaurs and birds? If so email me and I will send it to you.
If you have any questions on Creation, Evolution, or just want to say "Hi" please feel free to email me.
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