birds from dinosaurs - why are the intermediaries later than archaeopteryx

8/9/2019 Birds From Dinosaurs - Why Are the Intermediaries Later Than Archaeopteryx

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Birds from Dinosaurs -Why Are theIntermediaries Laterthan Archaeopteryx?

Birds and reptiles have a lot in common. Similarities intheir bones, digital claws, red blood cells, kidneys, penis,together with the reptilian appearance of bird embryos allspeak to a common ancestor.[1] A high calcium diet evencauses birds to develop reptilian ankle bones.[2]

Birds have even more in common with a certain type ofreptile the theropod dinosaurs. They share the followingcharacters: fused clavicles, feet with three claws pointingforward and one backward, partially fused metatarsals, anda second set of ribs covering the front of the torso.[3] Theearliest bird, Archaeopteryx, even had three fingers withclaws coming out the top of its wing, and it had teeth in itsmouth instead of a toothless beak. Theropod dinosaurs alsohad three fingers, all with claws, and sharp teeth in theirmouths.

One theropod in particular, Compsognathus, is oftenplaced in museums next to the earliest bird,Archaeopteryx, toshow their similarity. At first glance, they look similarbecause they are both about the size of a chicken. However,there are a number of substantial differences betweenrchaeopteryx and Compsognathus. Archaeopteryx had a

longer femur, thinner leg bones, and its tail vertebrae are of adifferent type than those of Compsognathus, havingexchanged dinosaur features for bird-like features.[4] Othercharacters of Archaeopteryx are distinctly more bird-likethan dinosaur-like, including a larger brain size, thecloseness of its teeth, the lack of dental serration, the nature

of its shoulder girdle, its caudal maxillary sinus, fewer bonesin the tail, its reduced prezygapophyses, its elongatedprenarial, the break up of its postorbital bar, and therelationship between its caudal and columellar parts.[5]

Archaeopteryxhad full wings and tail feathers capable offlight. In contrast, Compsognathushad no wings at all, anddoes not appear to have had any feathers not even a fewsmall ones on the skin for warmth. In another grossmorphological difference, Archaeopteryx possessed anornithischian hip, wherein the pubis and the ischium both

Above: Archaeopteryx, the famous linkbetween birds and dinosaurs. Noticeunmistakable bird feathers have been

impressed into the rock. Also notice the three-fingered hands with claws. This feature

confirms that it must have been related to thecarnivorous theropod dinosaurs which had the

same type of three-fingered clawed hand.

THIS SECTION:

SUDDENORIGINS AND

RAPID

EVOLUTIONIN THE FOSSIL

RECORD

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are positioned toward the posterior, unlike the saurischianhip of Compsognathus, with its forward placement of thepubis, as in all theropods. On paper, this sounds obscure,but it is significant because if it weren't for other features, anornithischian hip would normally make the bird morerelated to completely different looking dinosaurs such as thehorned Triceratopsand the plated Stegosaurus.

So even though Compsognathuslooks superficially similartoArchaeopteryx, it is actually a rather poor candidate for a"missing link." We should look to other candidates.

The coelurosaurian raptor dinosaurs make a betterintermediary. Unlike Compsognathus, many of the raptorshad feathers, they had a stiffened tail, and their pubis wasmidway between the saurischian position and theornithischian position. Other characters shared with birdsinclude a wishbone, birdlike feet, a carpus bone in the wrist,the social behavior of traveling in packs/flocks, and thepresence of longer arms than those of other dinosaurs.

A wealth of such raptors has been uncovered from theYixian Formation in Asia. However, the age of the YixianFormation is about 125 to 120 million years ago,[6] whichpresents a problem, because the first bird Archaeopteryx isknown from a half-dozen specimens that are 25 to 30 millionyears older found in the beginning of the Kimmeridgian ofBavaria, dating to 155 million years ago in the late Jurassic.Thus, the feathered raptors of the Yixian Formation are tooyoung to be the missing link between birds and dinosaurs.Even though the feathered dinosaurs from the YixianFormation might be related to the birds, they cannot bedirect ancestors. As Martin states,

The small coelurosaurian dinosaurs related toArchaeopteryx all occur in the fossil record afterArchaeopteryxand so cannot be directly ancestral.[7]

The dilemma concerning the origin of birds is similar tothat of the snakes. Raptors are to the birds what reduced-limbed lizards are to the snakes an intermediary form thatwould be a good example of a missing link, except that it

arrives too late in the fossil record to be a missing link.Because they are intermediaries, they give evidence for thetheory of descent in a general sense, yet because of theirtiming in the fossil record, they fail to provide true evidencefor a gradual transition between forms over long timeframes. We are left with the reality of rapid evolution thesudden evolution of new forms. Raptors were evidently thedescendents of missing links that evolved so quickly that theyleft little trace in the fossil record. Luckily, there is at leastsome hope for finding a missing link. A few raptor-likedinosaurs can be dated to around 160 to 165 million years

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Above: Survival of the Fittest is theharsh reality of this dark and wicked cosmos.

Below: But some evolutionary transitionshappened too fast for Survival of the Fittest to

be the cause.




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ago, which is about 5 to 10 million years prior torchaeopteryx. Hence, it is still possible that the perfect

intermediary might be discovered.

AfterArchaeopteryx, early birds retained certain reptiliancharacters for a long time, such as toothed mouths instead ofthe typical beaks of modern birds. Their transition into truly

modern forms was a long time in coming, and did not reachfruition until the Eocene and Oligocene long after thedinosaurs became extinct. Thus, the amount of time it tooknatural selection to perfect the new form was much longerthan the time it took rapid evolution to build the basicstructure of the new form. As with the snakes, it appearsthat there are two mechanisms for evolution in play rapidevolution of new forms by means of an unknown force,followed by gradual evolution of existing forms by means ofnatural selection.

The question is, what causes the rapid evolution?

Click here to find out more about sudden origins and rapidevolution in the fossil record.

The creationist narrative in Genesis 1 is contradicted bymany ancient Christian texts. Instead of an AlmightyCreator God, ancient Christian texts espouse that theuniverse is born from blind arrogance and stupidity. Theangels caused evolution to occur from species to species.There are many gods, (or aliens?), and the Christian God isust one among them. Satan the Devil writes scripture, and

thus the Bible was polluted with Genesis 1. Archaeology and

modern scholarship demonstrate that Genesis is indeedcorrupted. Cavemen walk with Adam and Eve. Esotericprophecies reveal the coming of Christ, and also reveal thedark forces that govern the cosmos. Such are the ancientChristian writings.

Sciencevindicates the truth of these ideas. Evolution oftenhappens too fast for Darwins theory. Gaps in the fossilrecord indicate that some kind of unnatural force actstogether with natural selection. Astrobiology reveals thatintelligent life probably evolved long before us. The fossilrecord reveals strange clues that aliens abducted species andtransported them across oceans, and that DNA from diverselineages was combined to spawn hybrid species. Evidently,aliens influence evolution, and they are the gods of theworlds religions.

This is not fiction. All these facts are thoroughly documentedin the links above.




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[1]Martin, Robert A. Missing Links: Evolutionary Concepts & Transitions Through Time. 2004,

Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Sudbury, MA, p 143-144

[2]Levinton, Jeffrey S. Genetics, Paleontology, and Macroevolution. 2001, Cambridge University

Press, Cambridge, UK, p 208


Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Sudbury, MA, p 148


Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc. Sudbury, MA, p 143-150

[5]Witmer, Lawrence M. The Debate on Avian Ancestry: Phylogeny, Function, and Fosills; In

Chiappe, Luis M; Witmer, Lawrence M. Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs. 2002,University of California Press, Berkeley & Los Angeles, CA, p 7

[6]Swisher, Carl C III; Wang, Yuan-qing; Wang, Xiao-lin; Xu, Xing; Wang, Yuan. Cretaceous

Age for the Feathered Dinosaurs of Liaoning, China. 1999, Nature 400, p 58-59


Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Sudbury, MA, p 153




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birds from dinosaurs - why are the intermediaries later than archaeopteryx

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