Modern Birds Existed Before Extinction of Dinosaurs

Evolutionary interpretations of the fossil record show “modern” birds originating sixty million years ago, five million years (give or take a day) after the supposed dinosaur die-out.

The molecular clock is “sloppier” than was once thought.

A study that appeared in a recent issue of BMC Biology analyzes research that disagrees with the fossil record, however, dating birds instead through the so-called “molecular clock.” Through this method, teams have dated the origin of birds back to a hundred million years ago—a not-so-minor divergence from what the fossil record supposedly indicates. Lead study author Joseph Brown of the University of Michigan explains that the team’s goal was to “reconcile” all the different estimates.

The team concluded that because of the many different bird families and orders, the molecular clock is “sloppier” than was once thought, according to Brown. Thus, “bad assumptions” about birds’ rates of genetic mutations accounts for the difference between paleontological and genetic dates of birds’ origin.

Commenting on the news, an Ohio University paleontologist, Patrick O’Connor, who was not affiliated with the research, emphasized that “the information we glean from both the fossil record and [living] animals represent complementary data sets—ones that can, and should, be integrated more so than is currently done.”

The study reminds us of the presuppositions and interpretations involved in evolutionary science. When faced with divergent “evidence,” evolutionists come up with explanations for why things are not as they seem, etc. To an evolutionist, this is perfectly reasonable; yet when creationists reconcile various data in the same manner, we are accused of stretching the evidence (said to speak for itself) to fit our underlying, presupposed dogma. But it’s plainly obvious evolutionists do the exact same thing when faced (so often, it seems!) with evidence that doesn’t line up with their dogma. And which changes, their dogma or what the evidence supposedly says? Time and time again, it’s the latter.