Protoavis
The idea; that birds evolved from dinosaurs; has become popular in recent years. This popularity has resulted from TV programs and news articles. The way it is presented, often makes this theory seem to be proven fact, but evidence to contrary is ignored.
First of all there is nothing in the Creation model that prevent a reptile from having feathers since God is not limited by man's classification systems. So the discovery of a truly feathered reptile would be not problem. It would take more than that to prove birds evolved from reptiles.
Some the problems with the idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs stem from their biological differences. These differences are also a problem for birds evolving from any other reptiles.
One particularly large difference between reptiles and birds
is in the structure of their lungs. Reptiles have bellow like
lungs and living birds have tube like lungs. There is no way for
a reptile's bellow like lung to evolve into a bird's tube like
lung, and have a living animal in-between.
Blown away by design: Michael Denton and birds’
lungs
It is commonly claimed that feathers evolved from scales, but
their differences make such a claim ridiculous. Feathers grow
from a follicle, like hair does. Scales on the other hand are
just folds in the skin. Furthermore the DNA for feathers and
scales are from different genes.
Bird evolution flies out the window
If birds evolved from dinosaurs order of their fossil should reflect it. The first chart show the order that the theory says should be found. The second chart shows the order in which they are found according to Evolutionists own dating methods. Coelophysis is put in the place of dinosaurs since Evolutionists consider it ancestral to dinosaurs in general.
Fossil order predicted by dinosaur to bird Evolution.
| Coelophysis - dinosaur |
| Feathered dinosaurs |
| Protoavis - bird |
| Archaeopteryx - bird |
Real order according to Evolutionary date methods.
| Animal | Evolutionary Date |
| Protoavis - bird | 225 Million years |
| Coelophysis - dinosaur | 220 Million years |
| Archaeopteryx - bird | 140-150 Million years |
| "Feathered dinosaurs" | 120-150 Millions years |
By itself this should be enough to prove that birds did not evolve from dinosaurs.
"Triassic, ~225 Million years"
Bird evolution: discontinuities and reversals
The fossils were a jumbled cache of disarticulated individuals resulting from a flood. Unfortunately, only a few parts were found, primarily a skull. However, given the fact that many so called transitional forms are based on extremely fragmented evidence, the most likely cause of the controversy is the fact that by predating its alleged ancestors, it blows the entire dino to bird evolution scheme to bits.
Another possible source of controversy is that the fossil has only been examined by ornithologists,(Bird experts) however the fact the they found it to be a bird is a plus.
Some have claimed that the bones of Protoavis are actually from more than one animal, how even if that were true some if not all of the bones would still most likely be from birds, other wise it is unlikely that ornithologists would have concluded that Protoavis was a bird. So in any case Protoavis is a strong argument against dinosaur to bird evolution.
The Protoavis was clearly a bird. In fact Protoavis is more like living birds than Archaeopteryx. What makes it a problem for dinosaur to bird Evolution is that it is dated as older than all it's alleged dinosaur ancestors.
"Late Jurassic, 140-150 Million years"
More on Archaeopteryx.
Archaeopteryx is NOT a hoax — it is a true bird, not a ‘missing link’
Is the fossil bird Archaeopteryx an evolutionary missing link?
news@nature.com - Flying dinosaur had 'bird brain'
Archaeopteryx was a fully flying and perching bird. Recent discoveries seem to have shown enough similarities between Archaeopteryx and Dromaeosaur; that they can be considered varieties of the same kind of animal.
Further more Archaeopteryx is dated as 20 million years older than Dromaeosaur. Archaeopteryx could not have evolved from Dromaeosaur. In fact Archaeopteryx is older than most of its alleged ancestors.
All of these so called feathered dinosaurs are dated as younger than the birds Protoavis and Archaeopteryx. As such they can not be ancestors to birds. There is evidence that in at least some cases these so called feathered dinosaurs are really misidentified birds. Also all these fossils are from China. China is known to have a fake fossil industry. This places a question mark on all such finds
Dated at 130 million years
Dromaeosaur was found in China, and did have feathers.
More recent fossils have shown definite evidence of flight
feather. The available evidence not only shows that Dromaeosaur
had flight feathers but that it could actually fly. It now
appears that Dromaeosaur was indeed a bird.
Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Flight
Furthermore it can be shown that Dromaeosaur was
probably variety of Archaeopteryx.
Dromaeosaurid
Archaeopteryx
Dated at 120 millions of years
Hind quarters of a micro raptor, (a dinosaur ) were connected to a bird fossil.
Archaeoraptor - National Geographic's Feathered Dinosaur
ARCHAEORAPTOR UPDATE: “Piltdown Bird” : Christian Courier
Archaeoraptor: National Geographic's Biggest Embarassment
Press Releases @ nationalgeographic.com
The Archaeoraptor hoax exposed the existence of a fake fossil business in China. It got started because complete fossils bring in more money than partial ones. This discovery has not shut down the operation, and so any fossils from China not proven to be other wise, could be assumed to be a product of the hoaxers. It should be noted that the most of the recent feathered dinosaurs are all form China, and there for suspect.
Dated at 120 -136 millions of years
Caudipteryx was a flightless bird.
What?
Another feathered dinosaur claim?
Dated at 120-150 millions years
Click here for picture of fossil.
Protoarchaeopteryx was a flightless bird.
What? Another feathered dinosaur claim?
Which came first, the dino or the bird?
Dated at 140 - 120 millions years
Sinosauropteryx was a dinosaur. The "feathers" were called frayed collagen fibers by evolutionist Feduccia. Other evolutionists, claim that this is "without merit" probably because they prefer to see Sinosauropteryx as transitional. This shows that evolutionists don't agree that Sinosauropteryx is transitional.
Dino-Bird Evolution Falls Flat!
Which came first, the dino or the bird?
"Early Cretaceous"
Dated at 128-124 million years
Four-Winged Dinosaurs Found in China, Experts Announce
CNN.com - Four-winged dinosaur fossils found - Jan. 22, 2003
If this four winged animal is not a fake, it would seem to be a type of gliding bird. This is supported by the three misidentified birds given above. It is also supported by the fact that for this animal to glide it would need to spread its hind legs in a manner not possible for a dinosaur.
There are reasons to question the validity of this find. All
but one of the Microraptor gui fossils were purchased from
a dealer. Given the proven fake fossil business in China, such
fossils are suspect. The one fossil acutely found by the
discoverers of Microraptor gui, had only one feather, and there
seems to be some doubt about it actually being part of the
fossil.
New four-winged feathered dinosaur?
For more information see the following links
Bird evolution: discontinuities and reversals
- On the Alleged Dinosaurian Ancestry of Birds -
Return to: Transitional Forms?