Page 87 - The Origin of Birds and Flight

Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar) 85

natural selection. However, no evidence indicates any such transition
from scales to feathers, which is physiologically and anatomically
impossible. Aware of this, evolutionists gloss over the matter with super-
ficial explanations. In one of his books, the atheist and evolutionist
Richard Dawkins makes do with a crude explanation consisting of sin-
gle sentence: “Feathers are modified reptilian scales.” 56
Let us now look at the impossibility of these claims in detail.

Reptile scales and bird feathers are very different structures:
It’s perfectly logical that evolutionists cannot supply any reasona-
ble explanation of the origin of feathers, because reptile scales and bird
feathers are entirely different structures. A. H. Brush, a professor of
physiology and neurobiology from the University of Connecticut, sets
out the structural difference between the two:
At the morphological level, feathers are traditionally considered
homologous with reptilian scales. However, in development, morpho-
genesis, gene structure, protein shape and sequence, and filament for-
mation and structure, feathers are different. 57
Scales are folds in the skin, consisting of flat, horn-like layers.
Overlapping one another like roofing tiles, they serve to keep water off,
permit the animal’s skin to move easily and conserve moisture and body
heat. Feathers, on the other hand, are light, strong and aerodynamic
forms—highly complex structures unique to birds. They consist of a cen-
tral stalk, from which sprout hairs lined with microscopic barbs, barbul-
es, and hooks. The barbs are bound together at their edges with tiny
hooks, attached in such a way as to keep the feather surface flat, power-
ful and flexible. At the same time, this structure makes the feather imper-
meable to water, and thanks to the hooks, every hair is attached to its
neighbor as if with a zipper.
A crane’s feather, for example, has some 650 tiny barbs extending
along both sides of the main stem. In each one of these, there are 600 con-
traposed micro-hairs, attached to one another with 390 tiny hooks. The