Page 82 - The Evolution Deceit

80 THE EVOLUTION DECEIT

Archæopteryx exhibits the
features of a full-fledged bird:
1
1. Its feathers show that it was a
warm-blooded creature able to
4 fly.
2. Its bones are hollow, like those
2 of birds living today.
3. Its teeth represent no evidence
5 that it evolved from reptiles. Many
toothed bird species lived in the
past.
3 4. There are bird species living
today that possess similar claws
on their wings.
5. The breastbone was observed
in the seventh Archæopteryx fos-
sil found recently. The presence
of this bone shows that just like
present-day birds, it possessed
powerful flight muscles.

bats, a flying mammal which belongs to a very different family.)
However, the seventh Archæopteryx fossil, which was found in
1992, caused great astonishment among evolutionists. The reason was that
in this recently discovered fossil, the breastbone that was long assumed by
evolutionists to be missing was discovered to have existed after all. This
fossil was described in Nature magazine as follows:
The recently discovered seventh specimen of the Archæopteryx preserves a
partial, rectangular sternum, long suspected but never previously docu-
mented. This attests to its strong flight muscles. 46

This discovery invalidated the mainstay of the claims that
Archæopteryx was a half-bird that could not fly properly.
Moreover, the structure of the bird's feathers became one of the most
important pieces of evidence confirming that Archæopteryx was a flying
bird in the real sense. The asymmetric feather structure of Archæopteryx is
indistinguishable from that of birds living today, and indicates that it
could fly perfectly well. As the eminent paleontologist Carl O. Dunbar
states, "because of its feathers [Archæopteryx is] distinctly to be classed as a
bird." 47