Surprise, Surprise—Birds Have Always Been . . . Birds!

Sometimes I see things in the news that just make me shake my head. I’m often reminded of this verse about those who ignore God’s clear witness in creation: “Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22). Well, I was most recently reminded of this in relation to an article titled, “Fossil could settle the debate over whether early birds really did fly.” This article is reporting on a study published in Scientific Reports that showed that supposed “early” birds flew just like modern ones. Wow! Now that’s a revelation!

This study revolved around part of a supposedly 125-million-year-old bird fossil found in Spain. This “exceptionally well preserved fossil . . . has an intricate arrangement of the muscles and ligaments that controlled the main feathers of the wing of an ancient bird—the oldest occurrence of connective tissue in association with flight feathers of birds.” And what did this fossil show? Well, that “at least some of the most ancient birds performed aerodynamic feats in a fashion similar to living birds.” The lead author of the study reported that he “was so surprised how this ancient bird looked so similar to what we might find in our backyards.” So birds looked and flew like birds? Surprise!

Of course, this comes as no surprise to those who start with the Bible’s history. Genesis tells us God created birds to reproduce according to their kind. Birds didn’t have to slowly evolve the ability to fly—those that fly were created with the ability from the very beginning. Birds have the incredible ability to master the skies in all the different ways that they do—soaring, darting, hovering—because they were designed with this ability. Flight is an incredibly complex thing and couldn’t possibly have evolved. The incredible ability of flight in fossil birds and living birds points toward the creativity of the Creator.

The evidence actually confirms that birds have always been—well, birds!

You can learn more about the incredible design of flight in Dr. Andy McIntosh’s DVD The Intricacies of Flight available in our store.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.