Page 234 - The Origin of Birds and Flight

The Origin of Birds and Flight
232
232 The Origin of Birds and Flight
PROTOPTERYX FENGNINGENSIS
This fossil bird called Protopteryx feng-
ningensis was discovered among 120-
million-year-old Cretaceous strata in the
Hebei region of China. In the 8 December,
2000, edition of Science magazine, paleontolo-
gists Fucheng Zhang and Zhonghe Zhou, from
the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing,
declared this fossil was a new
dino-bird.
This small bird was
clearly capable of flight. It
was covered in long feathers
and had a pelvic bone that
could assist flight. (The
pelvic bone is found in many
birds—including the hawk,
an excellent flier—and vari-
ous perching birds.) Yet
evolutionists subjected this
fossil to biased interpreta-
tions and portrayed it as an
intermediate form. Alan
Feduccia states that the traces
seen in Protopteryx are a sign
that birds were living before
dinosaurs, meaning that
there is no link between dino-
saurs and birds. 208

Protopteryx
fengningensis