Image courtesy of Elsevier Inc. Yosef Kiat, Amir Balaban, Nir Sapir, Jingmai Kathleen O’Connor, Min Wang, Xing Xu. Current Biology. Fair use doctrine.
Joel Kontinen
Is a dinosaur still a dinosaur if it has flight
feathers? A new study points to some fascinating evidence that contradicts the
idea of feathered dinosaurs and confirms created kinds.
Genesis asserts that God created creatures to reproduce according to kinds. Evolution attacks this teaching by insisting that nature evolved creatures to reproduce between different kinds. Studies like this one that take birds with wings—and creatures that have bird-specific molt strategies like Microraptor —and name them as dinosaurs essentially erode confidence in the Bible’s very first chapter.
The article also states that a bird called a Microraptor Tthat shed its wings 100 million years ago .
It’s no secret that birds fly in order to, among other reasons, get food and avoid becoming food. For that, they must have their feathers arranged in good order. But feathers wear out. If birds replaced their feathers haphazardly, for example, too many feathers shed from one wing and not the other, then they would lose control in flight—with lethal consequences. Therefore, many flying birds molt—replace their feathers—in a specific sequence. New research has identified evidence of this sequential molting in a so-called “feathered dinosaur."
A team of Israeli and Chinese scientists published their technical results
in Current Biology. After collecting wing molt data from over 300
birds, they found that “there is not a single flightless bird species that
molts its primary feathers sequentially.”1 Since these birds
don’t need to fly, they have no need to replace vital flight
feathers in an orderly way. So sequential molting is specific to flying (as
opposed to running or swimming) birds.
The team also noted evidence for sequential molting in a fossil from China
called r. In keeping with the technical literature and popular
descriptions of this extinct creature, the study authors referred to it as a
“feathered dinosaur." Microraptor flew uniquely, using
four wings instead of just two—two wings up front, plus two small wings on each
of its hind limbs. That doesn’t make it a dinosaur at all. Why not just call it
a four-winged bird?
Clear and classic anatomy refutes this new wave of including birds among
dinosaurs. All dinosaurs have an open hip socket. Birds don’t. For all we
know, Microraptor had a closed hip socket, unlike dinosaurs. It would be more thorough if
researchers would focus on that important detail, but instead they focus on
the Microraptor’s aspects that seem to resemble dinosaurs,
like their long tails and teeth.
Microraptor presents an interesting, new feature. Fossil specimen
IVPP V-13352 shows a clear gap between two primary flight feathers that looks
just like the gap seen in modern flying birds that use sequential molting. This
creature had bird-like feathers—even flight-specific feathers—to go with its
flight-ready body shape. Now, researchers are saying that it molted like a
flying bird. What else does one need to call it a bird instead of a reptile?
In other words: dinosaurs were dinosaurs and birds are birds.
Source:
Thomas, Brian. 2020. New Evidence Hurts Feathered Dinosaur Theory, ICR org 9 September
Posts
