Archaeopteryx
In 1984,
The fact that the archaeopteryx shares some things with
other vertebrates is not unique. Most reptiles, birds and mammals share some
features, but this does not mean that they evolved from each other. Most
creatures have legs or limb bones, most can see, hear, breath and smell, but
the fact that there are similarities does not prove a common origin.
In the same way we would not think that a motorbike, a car
and a jet boat all come from the same original machine, though they all share
some things in common. It is faulty reasoning to jump from seeing similarities
to the conclusion that similarities prove a common origin.
Archaeopteryx had teeth, there is no doubt about that, but
does this mean that it was once a dinosaur and it has retained the teeth in its
evolution? Once again, faulty reasoning is operating here. If we first of all
assume the direction of evolution, without a shred of proof, and then we add
another assumption to our first assumption, all we have is two assumptions.
Neither assumption proves the other, so nothing has been accomplished. The
presence of teeth does not prove a common origin, or even a link with another
creature.
Other fossil birds have been found with teeth too. Most
other birds don’t have teeth. Some reptiles don’t have teeth, some do. Some
mammals have teeth, some don’t. What does the presence or absence of teeth
prove? All it proves is that some birds have teeth and some don’t.
Archaeopteryx had feathers. Feathers are not hairs or scales.
Feathers are incredibly complex 3-dimensional structures. They have tapered
shafts, barbules, hooks and shafts. They have precise curvatures, and a perfect
balance between materials and function.
Feathers appear on archaeopteryx already formed and complete.
There are no fossil archaeopteryx with half-formed
feathers, or partially formed wings. All we have is a bird with feathers and no
transitional forms to prove that the archaeopteryx has evolved from some other
animal.
Furthermore, the difference between the three complex forms
feathers, scales and hairs - is vast when it is expressed it in terms of DNA
information. In order to change from dinosaur scales to bird feathers huge
stretches of complete, useful DNA information have to appear out of nowhere. This
has never been seen in any experiment and there is no mechanism known to
science whereby new DNA can appear.
Some people think that mutations, tiny and accumulative,
have added up to produce wings with feathers, but mutations have often been
seen to be harmful, or disruptive of DNA, and sometimes lethal. Mutations may
accumulate but they never produce masses of useful new information. It is only
an assumption that, some time in a distant past, mutations have worked in the
opposite direction to that which they work today, to produce millions of
wonderful new limbs and senses, organs and external features.
There is no hard evidence to prove that archaeopteryx is a
transitional form, nor is there any evidence to show how flight evolved, how
limbs turned into wings, how bones became hollow for flight, or how skulls
became beaks. People who think the archaeopteryx is a missing link assume too
much.
Another problem which evolutionists have in the case of
birds evolving is the rule, which evolutionists usually hold: evolution follows
the path of greater efficiency. In other words, if a change occurs in a living
creature, it is usually towards making that creature better able to survive.
This means that a creature may become more agile, faster, better camouflaged,
stronger, tougher, more productive and so on. But
logically, if a dinosaur were to evolve into a bird, it would need to grow
useless limbs intended for flight which would be a great hindrance to it for
thousands or millions of years, until finally the dinosaurs
whole body was adapted for flight. This would mean that, while the wings were
forming, and the feathers growing, the bones would be thinning and hollowing
out, the lungs would be extending into its bones, its legs would be changing
into claws, its whole body preparing for egg-laying, nesting and feeding
chicks, its mouth disappearing and a light beak growing, and a thousand other
major changes. For most of this time the changes would be a hindrance to the
creature, which contradicts the rule held by many evolutionists.
How can survival of the fittest work if a half-dinosaur is
trying to move about with two useless limbs? How can natural selection sort out
the less viable from the mutations which-may-be-beneficial in the long run?
Once again the theory that dinosaurs changed into birds falls into a tangle of
unprovable assumptions.
But what may be the most damaging fact of all is the
genetics side of archaeopteryx. Gregor Mendel proved,
(and he has been vindicated many times), that inherited characteristics never
blend. In other words, if a certain gene expresses in one generation, it may
submerge for a while, but it can always return. It doesn’t disappear, and it
doesn’t blend with other genes.
This means that the genes for feathers, bones, muscles, colours,
beaks, eyes, legs and so on are always present in the fertilised egg. This
provides the possibility for many varieties within a species, but never more
than the genes will allow. This is why we have big horses and little horses,
black dogs and white dogs, long-haired cats and short-haired cats, but in all
this variety there is never any more than the genes will allow. No new genes
ever appear, and no large chunks of new useful information ever appear.
In other words, thanks to discoveries in modern genetics, it
is now known that species are separated and preserved by their genes. Horses
will always be horses, dogs dogs
and cats cats. Pigeons may come in all shapes and
sizes, but they will always be pigeons. There are no exceptions. And the only
way anything really new can appear in a creature is by placing a new, complete
packet of information into the DNA and this is something which has never been
seen to happen. It is the same for any human invention: in order for a car to
fly a mass of new, complete information has to be produced, and then applied as
real parts, and integrated with the car, which would also need to be modified
to accommodate the new parts, but there is no known mechanism whereby a
dinosaur can receive a huge amount of useful information into its DNA to change
it into a bird.
So the archaeopteryx appears to be a bird with teeth proof
that there were once birds with teeth living some time in the past. That is all
it proves.
But there is something else that ought to be said about this
fossil, and that is the manner in which it was fossilised. In order to turn a
living creature into a fossil, one needs to kill and preserve it fairly
quickly, because decomposition usually sets in soon after death and the remains
disappear. Even a large creature like a cow will only last a year or so if it
dies on a hillside. Weather and bacteria are very efficient at dismantling even
the largest piece of carcass.
The fact that the fossil archaeopteryx has been found in
sedimentary rock indicates that it was drowned and buried rapidly before it
could escape. Sedimentary rock is made out of once fluid gravel, mud, sand and
other sediments, which subsequently settled and hardened. This fact indicates a
sudden, disastrous flood, which engulfed the birds along with many other living
things, before they could flee the water and alluvium.
This, of course, supports the Biblical account of the
world-wide flood. Archaeopteryx therefore best illustrates creation (since
there is no evidence to support transitional forms) and the flood (because of
the huge amount of fossil-bearing sedimentary rocks around the world).