Crash Landing for Archaeopteryx?

It’s an evolutionary icon, a supposed transitional form between two different kinds of animals. But the certainty about Archaeopteryx is now clouded by debate. Was it a bird or a feathered dinosaur? Was it the first bird to evolve or a much later development?

A meeting last year of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology presented another conundrum: was Archaeopteryx a flightless descendant of earlier creatures that had already evolved the ability to fly? This new question arises from analyses of Archaeopteryx’s skeleton that appear to show its wings could not flap adequately and the creature was actually a glider. Furthermore, Archaeopteryx had features seen in flightless birds today.

Some evolutionists no longer believe Archaeopteryx is the oldest bird, so they are searching for a way to explain how it lost its flying ability. But why assume that flight had to precede flightlessness or that gliding is a required intermediate step? Must penguins or kiwis have had ancestors that could fly? The problem is that evolution assumes feathered creatures are all somehow related, not separate kinds created by God.

The Lord created many bird kinds on Day Five of Creation Week with various anatomical features suited for different functions and stunning beauty. Flightlessness is not necessarily a sign of degeneration; some birds were apparently designed to glide from the beginning.

* http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=did-iconic-archaeopteryx-lose-its-ability-to-fly