Page 226 - The Origin of Birds and Flight

224 The Origin of Birds and Flight

SINOSAUROPTERYX: ANOTHER FOSSIL

SUBJECTED TO SPECULATIVE CLAIMS
With every new fossil discovery, evolution-
ists speculate about the dinosaur-bird link. Every
time, however, their claims are refuted as a result
of detailed analyses.
One example of such dino-bird claims was
Sinosauropteryx, announced with enormous media propa-
ganda in 1996. Some evolutionist paleontologists maintained that this
fossil reptile possessed bird feathers. The following year, however,
examinations revealed that these structures so excitedly described as
feathers were actually nothing of the sort.
One article published in Science magazine, “Plucking the Feathered
Dinosaur,” stated that the structures had been misperceived as feathers
by evolutionist paleontologists:
Exactly 1 year ago, paleontologists were abuzz about photos of a so-
called “feathered dinosaur” . . . The Sinosauropteryx specimen from the
Yixian Formation in China made the front page of The New York Times,
and was viewed by some as confirming the dinosaurian origins of
birds. But at this year’s vertebrate paleontology meeting in Chicago late
last month, the verdict was a bit different: The structures are not
modern feathers, say the roughly half-dozen Western paleontologists
who have seen the specimens. . . . Larry Martin of Kansas University,
Lawrence, thinks the structures are frayed collagenous fibers beneath
the skin—and so have nothing to do with birds. 196
About the speculative claims regarding feathers and
Sinosauropteryx, Alan Brush of Connecticut University had this to say:
The stiff, bristlelike fibers that outline the fossils lack the detailed
organization seen in modern feathers. 197
Another important point is that Sinosauropteryx had bellows-like
lungs, like those in reptiles. According to many researchers, these show
that the animal could not have evolved into modern-day birds with their
high-performance lungs.