“Missing Link Dinosaur” Is Just a Bird

What they found was another fossilized Archaeopteryx specimen—a crow-sized bird with teeth and claws on its wings, as many now-extinct birds had (though hoatzins have claws as juveniles). They found this fossil lower in the rocks than other specimens have been found. Because it’s found in supposedly lower rocks (based on the “index fossil,” in this case a type of sea creature called an ammonite, buried with it), they assume it’s older. But, in a biblical view, this only means that this bird was buried before Flood sediments overwhelmed other members of its kind.

Archaeopteryx is clearly a bird, so scientists soon changed their tune and said it was the earliest known bird.

So why the sensational headline? The article notes Archaeopteryx was “once thought to be the feathery link between dinosaurs and modern birds.” Key words: was once thought. The evolutionary story changes all the time because they have the wrong starting point of evolution and millions of years. Archaeopteryx is clearly a bird, so scientists soon changed their tune and said it was the earliest known bird. But, as the article notes, even that was overturned when they found other birds at the same evolutionary time period. But the author of the article calls these birds “bird-like dinosaurs” because of the supposed evolutionary connection between dinosaurs and birds (even though modern and now-extinct birds lived at the same time as the dinosaurs, including parrots, loons, owls, flamingos, and more).

But this new fossil, together with the other specimens they’ve collected, shows scientists something very interesting.

The specimens also show a great deal of diversity in their physical characteristics, which suggests that the fossils could represent more than one species. . . . “The high degree of variation in the teeth is particularly striking . . . [and] could reflect differences in diet.”

One researcher claims this is “very reminiscent” of the Galapagos finches with diverse beaks that Charles Darwin studied during his voyage in the 1800s. Of course, contrary to what Darwin eventually taught and what this researcher believes, variation within a kind is not evolution. That’s an interpretation imposed on the evidence. And it’s an interpretation that goes against observational science, which has never been able to randomly create brand-new genetic information, as molecules-to-man evolution requires.

It’s not surprising that, since creation, the Archaeopteryx kind speciated to fill several different environments (these environments were destroyed during the Flood, as was the whole surface of the planet). We can observe that birds (like the Galapagos finches) and all other creatures have been doing that since the Flood and into modern times. It’s one of the survival mechanisms God has given each kind. It’s neat to see an example of this potentially happening before the Flood.

Get More Answers on Answers News

This item was discussed on Answers News this afternoon by hosts Dr. Georgia Purdom and Bodie Hodge, along with AiG writer Avery Foley. Answers News is our twice-weekly news program, filmed live before a studio audience here at the Creation Museum and broadcast over my Facebook page. They also discussed the following topics:

• “Darwin Day” resolutions are back for discussion again

• Have scientists made a breakthrough in the search for ET?

• Children get new ears grown from their own cells

• Baby kicks in the womb are important for bone and joint development

• And more!

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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

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