Page 239 - The Origin of Birds and Flight

Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar) 237

B) Whether the feathers assumed to be on Microraptor gui’s legs are
actually attached to it or not is debatable. In addition, they are of a sort
that would be an obstacle to flight and do not constitute evidence to
support the alleged evolutionary origin of flight.
On the other hand, even if we assume that Microraptor gui’s legs
could open out to the side, there is no relationship between this crea-
ture’s feathers and the flight feathers of birds. In an article in the May
2003 edition of the journal Bioscience, Kevin Padian, director of the
California University Museum of Paleontology, opposed the thesis that
Microraptor gui was linked to the origin of flight, setting out the obstacles
that its anatomy posed to this scenario. 216
First, he is not convinced that the feathers claimed to be present in
Microraptor gui were actually attached to its leg. Second, even if they
were, there is no evidence that M. gui’s supposed gliding movement
could have evolved into the powerful wing flight in birds. Birds never
use their rear legs in flight, but keep them trailing backwards, or tucked
up against the body like the wheels of an airplane. After setting out these
facts, Padian comments: “So the leg feathering in Microraptor has noth-
ing demonstrably to do with the evolution of the kind of flight that more
derived birds use.” 217
Henry Gee, a paleontologist and also editor of the evolutionist
magazine Nature, states that Microraptor gui’s gliding movement had
nothing to do with bird flight: “Four wings is a perfect recipe for gliding,
but not powered, flapping flight.” 218