The University of California Museum of Paleontology has an online exhibit called DinoBuzz, which is all about dinosaurs. Part of the reason they have this online exhibit is that they think the truth about dinosaurs has been obscured by the “…latest wild hypothesis about dinosaurs” 1 regularly promulgated by the media. Well…in order to correct such problems, they have articles like the one entitled, “Are Birds Really Dinosaurs?” Unfortunately, rather than trying to correct the latest wild hypothesis, they buy right into it, saying:
Ask your average paleontologist who is familiar with the phylogeny of vertebrates and they [sic] will probably tell you that yes, birds (avians) are dinosaurs. Using proper terminology, birds are avian dinosaurs; other dinosaurs are non-avian dinosaurs, and (strange as it may sound) birds are technically considered reptiles. Overly technical? Just semantics? Perhaps, but still good science. In fact, the evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of birds being the descendants of a maniraptoran dinosaur, probably something similar (but not identical) to a small dromaeosaur. 2
Yes indeed, nearly every evolutionist is convinced of the fact that dinosaurs evolved into birds. For example, physorg.com (a science website) says:
The chicken genome provides several firsts: it is the first bird, the first agricultural animal, and the first descendant of the dinosaurs to have its genome sequenced3
To physorg.com, then, it is so well-understood that dinosaurs evolved into birds that when discussing the sequencing of the chicken genome, we can automatically say that the chicken is a descendant of the dinosaurs. In their book Feathered Dinosaurs, John A. Long and Peter Schouten are so sure of the scientific fact that dinosaurs evolved into birds, they say:
But remember when you next tuck into a tasty morsel of chicken, duck, or quail, that you are eating something that seamlessly evolved from the mighty predatory dinosaurs. There’s just a hint of T. rex in every bite of chicken. 4
Indeed, almost every evolutionary voice considers it a scientific fact that dinosaurs evolved into birds. This has become such a “well-known fact” that despite having NO FEATHER IMPRESSIONS preserved, many illustrators have taken to drawing feathers on such dinosaurs as Velociraptor.5
Now there have been some voices of reason in the evolutionary community about this. Probably the most reasonable one has been Alan Fedducia. He actually referred to the dinosaur-to-bird mania as “…the beginnings of the meltdown of the field of paleontology.” 6 Why? Because there is no convincing evidence for feathered dinosaurs. As an expert on birds, Fedducia understands what feathers are, and the nonsense that the majority of evolutionists peddle as evidence that some dinosaurs had feathers is not convincing to anyone who understands feathers.
So…why bring all this up? Because Devon E. Quick and John A. Ruben are about to publish a study in the Journal of Morphology that points out it is nearly impossible that dinosaurs evolved into birds.7 This is because there is a fundamental difference between the way birds walk and breathe compared to how dinosaurs walk and breathe. Essentially, the way dinosaurs walked would make it impossible for a bird-like creature to breathe.
Now Feduccia, Quick, and Ruben aren’t creationists. They think that birds evolved. They just realize that the scientific evidence suggesting they evolved from dinosaurs is slim, indeed. My point is simple: Most evolutionists promote dinosaur-to-bird evolution as fact. At the very least, the new study from Quick and Ruben shows that it is NOT a fact. Most likely, it is not even a reasonable hypothesis.
So this study tells us two important things. First, it tells us that dinosaurs probably didn’t evolve into birds. More importantly, however, it tells us that when evolutionists start talking about “facts,” be on your guard. The “facts” in evolution change more often than my fishing lures on a slow fishing day.
REFERENCES
1. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/dinobuzz.html
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2. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/avians.html
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3. http://www.physorg.com/news2313.html
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4. John A. Long and Peter Schouten, Feathered Dinosaurs, Oxford University Press, p. 27, 2008.
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5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Velociraptor_BW.jpg
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