Page 102 - The Transitional Form Dilemma

THE TRANSITIONAL-FORM DILEMMA

formed. Carroll, one of the world’s foremost authorities on vertebrate
paleontology, makes the following confession, in spite of his own evo-
lutionist credentials: “ . . . all the Triassic pterosaurs were highly spe-
cialized for flight. . . They provide little evidence of their specific
ancestry and no evidence of earlier stages in the origin of flight.” 60
The wing structure of flying reptiles is particularly fascinating:
There are four fingers on the pterosaur’s wing, just as there are on the
front legs of other reptiles. The fourth “little” finger is some 20 times
longer than the others, however, and the wing stretches out beneath it.
If flying reptiles had evolved from land-dwelling reptiles, then this
fourth finger must have grown very gradually, and in stages. Yet not
only is there no evidence of this in the fossil record, but neither can any
such growth be explained in terms of the natural selection-mutation
mechanisms, because the transitional-form stages would make the
hand non-functional, without allowing the creature to fly.
It is a grave error to ascribe an evolutionary relationship between
birds and flying reptiles, if only because of their very different wing
structures. In the same way that it would be ignorant to claim an evolu-
tionary relationship among flies (insects, bats (mammals) and starlings
(birds) on the premise that they all have wings, it is equally erroneous
to posit such a relationship be-
tween flying reptiles and birds.
Alan Feduccia

Feathered
Feathered
Dinosaur Tales
Dinosaur Tales
For the last decade, di-
nosaurs with feathers or “dino-
birds” have been one of the most
prominent propaganda vehicles
in the Darwinist media.
Headlines about imaginary dino-

100