Dinosaur to Bird Evolution

The Fossils Say... It Didn't Happen

As knowledge grows, science is constantly subject to correction. Things that were believed as true 200 years ago (such as spontaneous generation), is known to not be true today. That is how our knowledge advances. It's time to throw out the old notion that dinosaurs evolved into birds. The evidence say no, it didn't happen. Here is some of what you'll see in the Dinosaur Track Museum (A Genesis Orgins Museum).

We have a cast replica of the Berlin Archaeropteryx. The original was found Germany's Solnhofen Limestone in 1877 and is the best preserved Archaeopteryx available. It has the features of a modern bird, including full modern flight feathers. Those claiming this is a transitional fossil from dinosaurs to birds are typically paleontologists... experts in dinosaur bones. However, there is little they can come up with that relates Archaeopteryx to dinosaurs. On the other hand, bird experts (ornithologists) identify this as a bird. It as a bird's respiratory system, bird's brain, bird's feathers, and a bird's perching feet. Yes, it does have some features modern birds do not have, however they do not show a transitional structure. The most that can be said is that Archeopteryx is a mosaic bird.

Keep in mind that humans created the categories we use to classify different types of animals, not God. God is not limited to the characteristics we use to define each category. As with the platypus, God can combine whatever features He desires in the creatures He created. As we learn more, it has always turned out that those features were perfect for what they were designed to do.

The above is a photo of our cast of a baby pterodactyl. This is a Pteradactylus kochi, from the Solnhofen Limestone in Germany, secular dated at 145 to 150 million years old. This cast is very rare. I've not been able to find another cast of a baby pterodictyl available anywhere. Next to it is a stone with trilobite tracks, and a fossil trilobite. That trilobite tracks are preserved is amazing! However, that's another story. This is a photo of a display we had in a church classroom. Pterodactyls grew to have a 20 foot wingspan and a six foot body length, however like all of us, they started out small.

The baby pterodactyl is mounted in a case with a plexiglass cover to protect it, as it is very fragile. That makes it difficult to photograph, but when you see it in person you can see the details... and see that, in this case, there are no protofeathers.

Protofeathers?

Although pterodactyls are not in the line of evolution that supposedly leads to birds, some of them are claimed to have protofeathers. The claim of protofeathers on dinosaurs is one of the main "evidences" used to show dinosaurs evolved to become birds. However, what are these "protofeathers?"

What is a protofeather? The prefix "proto" means "first" or the "earliest form of." So a protofeather would be the beginnings of feathers. It's not a feather, but is something that is starting to look like and function like a feather. On dinosaurs these "protofeathers" are called "dinofuzz." The question is: is "dinofuzz" actually protofeathers, or is it something else?

The answer is... something else.

It has been know since 2007 (and earlier) that dinosaur protofeathers do not exist.

A team of researchers led by Prof. Theagarten Lingham-Soliar from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa has added to the mounting body of evidence that shows that Sinosauropteryx is not a dino-to-bird intermediate fossil that possesses ‘protofeathers’. The research team also included ornithologist Alan Feduccia, a well known critic of dino-to-bird evolution. They reported in Proceedings of the Royal Society B that the filamentous structures in the skin of a recently discovered Sinosauropteryx—often touted as ‘protofeathers’—are nothing more than structural collagen. Lingham-Soliar et al. are also aware that many evolutionists will be very sceptical of their findings because of a strong attachment to the evolutionary dino-to-bird paradigm. Therefore, they have sought to counter a likely objection: that the method (standard light microscopy) they used to identify the filamentous structures as collagen is inadequate for identifying dermal collagen. They listed in the ‘Materials and Methods’ section of their paper numerous examples and references of successful identification of dermal collagen in a wide variety Figure 1. Sinosauropteryx prima was a find hailed by evolutionists as evidence for feather evolution in dinosaurs.of animals, both fossil and modern, thereby demonstrating that standard microscopy was ‘more than adequate’ for the task Journal of Creation, 21(3) 2007, Page 11

Since 2007 others have confirmed this, that what some are calling protofeathers are actually nothing more than decayed dinosaur skin (or pterodactyl skin) creating a fuzz on the dinosaur's skin. And, of course, this is additional proof the dinosaur died recently, because we still see the decay products of collagen.

The above is reproduction of a Microraptor qui (Cryptovolans) in our museum. It is from the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, China (early Cretaceous). This is another claimed transition from dinosaurs to birds that has now been debunked. As you can see microraptor is not very big, about the size of an average bird.

The next two pages will present the evidence and show that both archaeopteryx and microraptor are birds, not transitions from dinosaurs to birds.

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