Page 148 - The Origin of Birds and Flight

146 The Origin of Birds and Flight

As a result of their research, Alan Feduccia and A. C. Burke con-
cluded in Science magazine that it was not possible to maintain that
birds originated from dinosaurs:
It is unlikely that a shift between the typical amniote mode of de-
velopment that generates digit IV through the primary axis, to a limb
that develops digit III through a convergent primary axis, would main-
tain the pattern of cartilage condensation that is identical in avian, croc-
odilian, chelonian, and mamalian limbs… 100
These conclusions later appeared in the well-known journal New
Scientist, under the heading “Dinosaur theory put to flight: birds may
not be descended from the ancient reptiles after all”:
Traditional thinking about the ancestry of birds has been challenged by
biologists in the US. They say that a comparison of dinosaur claws with
bird wings and feet contradicts the widespread theory that birds
evolved from small, flesh-eating dinosaurs 150 million years ago.
Birds, reptiles and mammals all have four limbs, each with up to five
digits. . .
But dinosaur fossils tell a different story. In theropods, the fourth and
fifth digits are greatly diminished or have disappeared altogether.
Feduccia maintains that animals which had lost these digits could not
then evolve into birds that lack one and five. 101
Despite having spent years defending the idea that birds were de-
scended from theropod dinosaurs, Peter Dodson, who works as a dino-
saur paleontologist at the Veterinary School at University of
Pennsylvania, expresses his opinion regarding the accuracy of the evi-
dence to the contrary:
That has been the prevailing faith for the past twenty years. They are
doing a first-class job of shaking things up and making us re-examine
the evidence. 102
As you see, in order for a dinosaur to turn into a bird, every point
in its body, right down to its toes, would have to change and assume a
specific structure to permit the bird to fly. Any transition from a dinosaur
to a flying bird is one that not even reasoning, conscious human beings