Page 44 - The Evolution Impasse 1
P. 44

well-known magazines
                                                             Science and Nature, as well
                                                             as BBC television, reported
                                                            about this fossil that the en-
                                                            tire body of the fossil—esti-
                                                           mated to have lived 220 mil-
                                                           lion years ago— was covered
                                                          in feathers, had a furcula like
                                                          present-day birds (as well as
                                                         Archaeopteryx), and that its fe-
                                                         athers had hollow shafts.
                                                           This invalidates the claims
                                                          that Archaeopteryx was the an-
                                                            cestor of present-day birds.
                                                             The fossil discovered is 75
                                                              million years older than
                                                              Archaeopteryx—in other
                                                               words, it existed with
                                                               fully avian features 75
                                                               million years before the
                                                               creature that evolutio-
                                                               nists claimed to have be-
                                                               en the forerunner of
                                                          birds. 44
                                                            So it became clear that Arc-
                                                      haeopteryx and other archaic birds
                                                      were not transitional forms. Their
                                                      fossils did not demonstrate that va-
                                                      rious bird species evolved from one
                                                      another. On the contrary, they pro-
                                                      ved that modern-day birds and some
                                                      species of birds like Archaeopteryx
                                                      lived together.
                                                         In short, some characteristics of
                                                      Archaeopteryx show that this creatu-
                                                      re was no transitional form. And
                                          s
                                           r
                                          t
                                           u
                                     r
                                         n
                                        o

                                       c
                                      e
                                    A A reconstruction  now two noted proponents of the
                                              i
                                             t
                                               n
                                              o
                                            c

                                               x
                                      A
                                            p
                                    o of Archaeopteryx
                                              r
                                               y
                                     f
                                         a
                                             e
                                             t
                                          e
                                       r
                                       c
                                        h
                                           o
                                                      THE EVOLUTION IMPASSE I
   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49