Page 230 - The Origin of Birds and Flight

228 The Origin of Birds and Flight

UNENLAGIA COMAHUENSIS: A DINO-BIRD

BASED ON ARTISTS’ IMAGINATIONS
Fernando E. Novas of the Argentine
Museum of Natural Sciences in Buenos Aires
and Pablo F. Puerta of the Paleontology
Museum in Trelew announced a new fossil, said
to be 90 million years old, in the 22 May, 1997,
edition of Nature magazine, under the caption
“Missing Link.” 201 They named this fossil Unenlagia comahuensis,
meaning “half-bird from north-west Patagonia.” This fossil, discovered
in Argentina’s Patagonia region, consisted of more than 20 pieces of the
creatures leg, rib and shoulder bones. Based on these fragments, artists
drew a creature complete with a neck, jaw and tail—and subsequently
announced that this fossil was an intermediate stage in the transition
from dinosaurs to birds.
However, Unenlagia comahuensis is manifestly a dinosaur, in many
respects. In particular, certain features of its skull and the bone forma-
tions behind its eyes closely resemble those of theropods. There is also
no evidence at all that it bore feathers. Evolutionist scientists, however,
claimed that by raising its forearms, it could make similar movements to
those used by birds for flying. But clearly, these prejudiced guesses and
assumptions cannot be regarded as definitive proof.
On account of its different features, Lawrence M. Witmer of Ohio
University describes this creature as a genuine “mosaic”. 202
Alan Feduccia also states that Unenlagia comahuensis cannot be a
missing link between dinosaurs and birds, emphasizing that it lived 55
million years after Archaeopteryx. 203
As Feduccia stressed in a 1996 article written together with several
other authors in Science magazine, almost every dinosaur said to resem-
ble the bird dates back to long after the emergence of the first true
birds. 204 This creates the problem that scientists refer to as the time para-
dox.