Page 222 - The Origin of Birds and Flight

220 The Origin of Birds and Flight

PROTARCHAEOPTERYX ROBUSTA AND
CAUDIPTERYX ZOUI: VEHICLES FOR
BIASED INTERPRETATIONS

In the summer of 1996, farmers working in
the Yixian Formation found three separate turkey-
sized fossils, so well preserved as to give genuine
evidence of bird feathers. At first, Ji Qiang and his colleague
Ji Shu-An concluded that these fossils must belong to a single species.
Noting their surprising similarity to Archaeopteryx, they gave the creature
the name Protarchaeopteryx robusta.
During his research in the autumn of 1997, Philip Currie concluded
that these fossils belonged to two different species, neither of which
resembled Archaeopteryx. The second species was given the name
Caudipteryx zoui. 187
The discoveries of the Protarchæopteryx robusta and Caudipteryx zoui
fossils were depicted as evidence that birds evolved from theropod dino-
saurs. 188 The popular press stated that these fossils were definitely the so-
called ancestors of birds. One commentator even wrote that the dinosaur-
bird link was “now pretty close to rock solid.” 189 However, this certainty
was again, only a biased interpretation.
According to evolutionist claims, Caudipteryx and Protarchaeopteryx
were small dinosaurs whose bodies were largely covered in feathers. But
on their wings and tails were longer and more complex feathers, arranged
like those in present-day birds. However, it is no surprise that these crea-
tures should have feather arrangements similar to modern birds’, because
their feathers are symmetrically shaped, as observed in present-day flight-
less birds. 190 Therefore, the creatures in question are flightless birds, not
dinosaurs.
In severely criticizing the dino-bird dogma, Larry Martin and Alan
Feduccia stated that these fossils were flightless bird species like the
modern ostrich. 191