Page 210 - The Origin of Birds and Flight
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208 The Origin of Birds and Flight
accepted by the entire scientific community. They try to give the impres-
sion that the only subject up for debate is which species of dinosaur
birds evolved from. Although Martin earlier supported the dino-bird
claim, he eventually realized in the light of his research that it was
invalid, and abandoned his former ideas:
Every time I look at the evidence formerly discovered and then make a
claim about the origins of the theropod, I saw its inaccuracy. That is
because everything shows its inadequacy. The truth of the matter is
that…I seriously suspect that they have the same features with birds
and don’t think that there exist striking features supporting that birds
are of theropod origin. 172
Feduccia admits that concerning the origin of birds, the theory of
evolution finds itself in a state of uncertainty. He attaches no credence to
the deliberately maintained dino-bird controversy, which is in fact
groundless. Important information is contained in his article, “Birds
Are Dinosaurs: Simple Answer to a Complex Problem,” published
in October 2002 in The Auk, the journal of the American
Ornithologists’ Union, in which the most technical aspects of
ornithology are discussed. Feduccia describes in detail how the
idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs, raised by John Ostrom
in the 1970s and fiercely defended ever since, lacks any scien-
tific evidence, and how such an evolution is impossible.
Feduccia is not alone among evolutionists in this regard.
Peter Dodson, the evolutionist professor of anatomy from
Pennsylvania University, also doubts that birds evolved from
theropod dinosaurs:
I am on record as opposing cladistics and catastrophic
extinction of dinosaurs; I am tepid on endothermic dino-
saurs; I am skeptical about the theropod ancestry of birds. 173
Despite being an evolutionist, Dodson admits the unreal-
istic claims of the theory of evolution, and has come in for
severe criticism from his evolutionist colleagues. In one article,
he responds to these criticisms:
