Page 35 - The Origin of Birds and Flight

Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar) 33

An important fact is that no present-day bipeds use their forelimbs
for balance. Kangaroos, which stand on two legs—a cursorial posture—
and have short forelimbs and a long tail, put the theory to the test. They
do not extend their forearms when jumping; on the contrary, their arms
play a passive role. Neither do they bat or flex their arms to increase
jumping speed. In the words of the paleontologist Sankar Chatterjee, “To
minimize drag force, they are kept in a folded position in a strictly sag-
ittal plane during takeoff, midway through the leap, and during land-
ing.” 20
The evolutionary biologist Walter Bock also refers to the invalidity of
the claims regarding the cursorial theory:
I know of no small tetrapods about the size of Archaeopteryx that are pri-
marily terrestrial (e.g., not flying-running forms, or secondarily flight-
less or degenerate flying forms) and use their forelimbs for balance dur-
ing fast running or during a leap. And I know of none using the fore-
limbs as flapping structures to provide forward thrust to increase the
length of its leap. 21
The cursorial theory poses insoluble difficulties for evolutionists.
Their fundamental claim—that because certain reptiles beat their fore-
limbs for long periods in order to catch insects, these limbs developed
into wings—contains a major inconsistency. They offer no explanation as
to how a structure as complex as the wing developed to catch flies.
John Ostrom, the foremost proponent of the cursorial theory, confess-
es that supporters of both theories have no grounds on which to rest
their case:
My cursorial predator theory is in fact speculative. But the arboreal the-
ory is also similarly speculative. 22